Investigated alleged illegal adoption network of IURD
11 DECEMBER 2017Alexandra Borges, Sérgio Figueiredo and Judite França in the presentation of TVI's Great Report on the IURD. | NUNO PINTO FERNANDES / GLOBAL IMAGES
The TVI report "The Secret of the Gods" reveals that the leader of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is involved in the network and that his grandchildren were robbed of a home in Portugal
The Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into an alleged network of illegal adoptions of Portuguese children linked to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), the Attorney General's Office (PGR) told Lusa on Monday.
"There is an investigation related to this matter, and it has been referred to the DIAP [Investigation and Criminal Action Department of Lisbon] for investigation," added PGR, quoted by Lusa.
An investigation by TVI reveals that Edir Macedo, leader of IURD, is involved in an international network of illegal adoptions of children and that his own "grandchildren" are children stolen from the Universal Home, an institution that was then part of the social work of church.
According to the report entitled "The Secret of the Gods", which began to be broadcast on TVI on Monday, the IURD had an illegal children's home in Lisbon in the 90's, where several children were taken in absentia of their mothers.
The children were delivered directly to the home, in the margins of the courts, by families in difficulties and ended abroad, adopted by bishops and pastors of the church irregularly and without right to contradict the families, according to the investigation of the journalists Alexandra Borges and Judite France .
TVI found that Edir Macedo "is involved in this international network of illegal adoptions of children, and that his own grandchildren are children stolen from the Universal Home, an institution that was then part of the church's social work."
According to a TVI statement on the investigation, "an important member of this network even came to steal a newborn from his mother in the maternity hospital and to register him directly as his biological child."
"This happened under our eyes and depicts the scheme that was set up in an illegal home," TVI's director of information, Sérgio Figueiredo, said at the end of the presentation of the report to the press.
The situation "reaches the height of the IURD," he said, stressing that "the children were taken without the courts hearing the children's families."
"The state was not quite right here, but it's never too late to restore the truth," said Sérgio Figueiredo.
The home opened in 1994 in Lisbon and was legalized in 2001. The IURD eventually closed it in 2011, claiming the crisis as the motive.
This is the first series of information on Portuguese television and will be revealed in ten episodes, the first one being broadcast today following the "Jornal das 8".
https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/mp-esta-a-investigar-alegada-rede-de-adocoes-ilegais-de-criancas-ligadas-a-iurd-8977692.html?utm_source=Push&utm_medium=Web ...
... Wonder if anyone will bother to translate and make a transcript for publication on the internet
Seems TVI are investigating an illegal international adoption network which allegedly was active in Portugal during the time Madeleine went missing.
Apparently they have sufficient information for ten episodes and ... just like the much derided burglaries and assaults on children carried out while their parents slept under the same roof ... much time and effort has gone into denying such a thing as illegal adoptions are possible.
If there was an active international network for the theft and trafficking of infants ... in my opinion ... it would take very little tweaking to adapt the same protocols for the theft and trafficking of toddlers.
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