Investigated alleged illegal adoption network of IURD.

[Alice Purjorick]

Maybe this bunch of Pentecostals did kidnap Madeleine McCann.
But ask yourselves one question:

Would the aforementioned bunch of Pentecostals,bearing in mind their beliefs and probably financial clout, resort to the Brummagem selection of individuals who are put forward by some as prime suspects for the act of abduction?
I think they would more likely operate on the principle attributed to Oliver Cromwell.

[G-Unit]

It does say that the children were given voluntarily by parents in difficult circumstances.

"The children were delivered directly to the home, in the margins of the courts, by families in difficulties"

Abortions were almost impossible to obtain in Portugal until they were legalised in 2007. That suggests that this may have been seen as an alternative by women who, for whatever reason, didn't want a child just then. Social Services also placed children in the home apparently. There's an interesting comment by Pedro do Carmo;

Media billionaire accused of involvement in alleged illegal adoption network that “stole dozens of Portuguese children”

Brazilian media billionaire Edir Macedo is being accused of involvement in an alleged illegal adoption network that stole dozens of Portuguese children during the 90s.

The accusation comes in an explosive series of reports compiled by investigative journalists working for TVI24.

“O Segredo dos Deuses” will air its first episode this (Monday) evening, after the 8pm news.

It sets out to explain how “several children belonging to Portuguese families experiencing financial hardship” were delivered into the custody of a home run by the IURD (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, or Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), an evangelical movement lead by Macedo, the owner and chairman of Brazil’s second largest television network Rede Record.

According to investigators Alexandra Borges and Judite França, these children then “disappeared”, ending up abroad and “adopted in an irregular way” by figures within the movement.

Pre-publicising the programme, Público has run with allegations that even “the grandchildren of Edir Macedo” were “stolen” from the children’s home which IURD ran in Lisbon.

Says the paper, the TVI report has “managed to identify dozens of families whose children were taken, and who have spoken about the situation for the first time”.

As Alexandra Borges explained, getting this story out 20 years ago simply was not possible.

She told TVI news anchor Judite Sousa of mothers who “tried everything” to alert authorities to what was happening but got nowhere

These mothers today are not expecting to win back custody of their children - who are all now fully grown. They simply want to make them aware that they did not abandon them, she said.

The seven-month-long investigation may also impel the Portuguese State to finally respond to the mothers for whom there were no answers, even when they went to court in some cases seeking them.

“This is a very serious story of an illegal place in which Social Services placed children and from which those children disappeared to be handed over to bishops and pastors for raising” within the religious community, she said.

The extraordinary allegations will be broadcast in 10 episodes, Monday to Friday, from this evening up to December 22.

Social Services meantime is said to have opened an inquiry.

UPDATE TUESDAY:

With this story being repeated time and again over national media, the IURD has issued a statement rejecting TVI's investigation, saying it is "based on the false testimony of a former bishop" connected to the religious movement.

Edir Macedo's two grandchildren - purportedly 'stolen' from a single mother in Amadora, along with another sibling who has since died - have also resorted to Youtube to say their adoptions were completely legal.

Here, Pedro do Carmo, deputy national director of the PJ has told reporters that whatever may have happened all those years ago, any 'crimes' will have now exceeded judicial time limits - which in the case of child kidnapping run for 20 years.

Edir Macedo's grandchildren were 'adopted' in 1995, thus the legality of their adoption can no longer be challenged through the courts, he said.
http://portugalresident.com/media-billionaire-accused-of-involvement-in-alleged-illegal-adoption-network-that-%E2%80%9Cstole-dozens-of

[John]

FYI
http://www.againstchildtrafficking.org/wp-content/uploads/Illegal-Adoption-as-Child-Trafficking-Iara-de-Witte.pdf

"However, illegally selling a child for adoption would not constitute trafficking where the child itself is not to be exploited. ... Trafficking, on the other hand, implies exploitation of the victims. If an adopted child is subjected to coerced labor or sexual exploitation, then it constitutes a case of human trafficking.”

Apparently there was once quite a child trade between Bulgaria* and Greece.
 
* one could start a good hare running there.

Read Christopher Booker on the UK's history wrt adoption.

It wasn't that long ago that babies were adopted regularly in the UK through the churches without any State involvement. Babies were moved all over the UK like cattle and sheep with many ending up in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Ireland.

One such child was adopted by my late uncle and his wife so I am well versed into what went on and why. 

[G-Unit]

It wasn't that long ago that babies were adopted regularly in the UK through the churches without any State involvement. Babies were moved all over the UK like cattle and sheep with many ending up in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Ireland.

One such child was adopted by my late uncle and his wife so I am well versed into what went on and why.

Adoption was always a bit dodgy. Unwanted babies were passed to those who wanted them without any legal intervention at all. A friend of mine told me she had discovered that her sister was really her Mum, but no-one would talk about it to her.

I was adopted in 1946 but it wouldn't have been allowed now because my adoptive parents had been turned down by adoption societies as too old. There was a bit of smoke and mirrors involved, it seems, probably helped along by the fact that I wasn't a baby, I was 2.

[Brietta]

Crimes of illegal adoption by the IURD investigated by TVI

DECEMBER 12, 2017
Rute Coelho

At least ten Portuguese children welcomed in a home of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God were stolen from their mothers in the 1990s for adoption. DIAP has opened an inquiry but PJ says that after 20 years the deadline has passed

A seven-month journalistic inquiry by TVI found that at least 10 Portuguese children were "stolen" from biological mothers in the 1990s from a reception center in Lisbon funded by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God ), and taken to illegal international adoption. The first episode of the information series "The Secret of the Gods", authored by journalists Alexandra Borges and Judite França, yesterday showed, has already led to concrete measures. "They are the thefts of children without quotes and illegal adoptions without quotation marks," Alexandra Borges told the press during the first two episodes.

Contacted by the DN, the Attorney General's Office replied that "there is an investigation related to this matter, and it has been referred to the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action of Lisbon for investigation." The Judiciary Police, through its deputy national director, Pedro do Carmo, told the DN that "never any entity or authority has ever denounced any of these cases to the PJ. For us it is an unknown matter." There is another problem: "The crimes have been prescribed." Serious crimes such as child abduction or criminal association have a maximum term of 20 years to investigate, he explained. For example, the first case reported in the report of three siblings taken to the United States happened in 1995, and prescribing it in 2015.

Social Security acted now

The ongoing investigation into the DIAP de Lisboadeveria serve to clarify responsibilities but if all the facts have been prescribed will be difficult. Anyway, the process was opened after a complaint made now by Social Security to the Public Prosecutor. And Social Security acted after TVI was contacted about the discovery of the shocking facts that occurred more than 20 years ago. "In the context of the research carried out by TVI on the" Casa de Acolhimento Mano Amiga ", integrated in the Social Work of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), the Institute of Social Security, ..) a participation to the Public Ministry / DIAP of Lisbon, "Social Security reported after being questioned by the television station. It was only now that the state's highest adoption authority concluded that the home financed by the IURD was not legal at the time of the events (between 1995 and 2001), even though Social Security sent children there, as reported in the report. "Following the e-mails sent by the television station, the Social Security Institute IP had the opportunity to legally review this matter, concluding that this host house, not being licensed, was in breach of applicable legal provisions," the statement said.

The report opened with the story of Vera, Luis and Fábio, three Portuguese brothers who were "robbed" of their biological mother in 1995, of the said home, which was only licensed in 2001. They were illegally adopted by Viviane Freitas, one of the daughters of bishop founder of the IURD, Edir Macedo, and taken to the United States, where they still live and are connected to the church. The circumstances in which these three siblings and at least seven other children of that illegal home have been withdrawn from their family are yet to be clarified.
https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/crimes-de-adocoes-ilegais-pela-iurd-investigadas-pela-tvi-prescreveram-8977793.html



Comments include one of a different view ...

Miguel Martins
TVI did not seek the truth of the facts. Only denigrate! All the report "relies on the collaboration of Alfredo Paulo Filho," who stopped collaborating with the church at the end of 2013. "His departure was motivated by his improper conduct (betray his wife and spend the money of offers with prostitutes) which made its permanence in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God unsustainable, iurd will sue Alfredo Paulo Filho, against whom he has already tried cases in Brazil.

"Alfredo Paulo Filho has already been convicted by the Brazilian courts to compensate the IURD for the moral damages caused by his defamatory campaign, also having been ordered to seize his passport by the Brazilian Federal Police.
For the organization, "dissatisfied with the refusal of the IURD to pay him any monetary sum," the former bishop Alfredo Paulo "resolved to continue this offensive campaign and attacked the credibility and prestige of the IURD, in social networks and more recently on television" - Alfredo Paulo Filho is still accused of wanting to "focus his defamatory campaign in Portugal".

TVI will be the target of "wide dozens of actions", which will be placed in Portugal and abroad. According to the church, the adoptions revealed in the work "occurred in Portugal and were decreed by the Court of Family and Minors of Lisbon."

"The children were referred by the Social Security and the Santa Casa de Misericórida de Lisboa to a home - which evidently was not illegal at the time, awaiting the conversion of the provisional register into a definitive one, according to the documentation that Maria Theresa Branco director of the Lisbon District Center - and several parents have applied to adopt children, "according to the IURD, which guarantees that children are" counted by the fingers of one hand "who were couples connected to that church.

"TVI itself has already confirmed to us that it has not consulted the court case in which three children were adopted, which says much of how far the investigation went and what care they understand to have," he added. In the statement sent to the newsrooms, IURD sent a video with two of these young people to deny the report and accuse the television of not having done the investigation,
Whoever is from God is always persecuted.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you, when they revile you and persecute you, and tell you all the evil against you for my sake.
Rejoice and rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted the prophets which were before you.
Matthew 5: 10-12

[jassi]

Adoption was always a bit dodgy. Unwanted babies were passed to those who wanted them without any legal intervention at all. A friend of mine told me she had discovered that her sister was really her Mum, but no-one would talk about it to her.

I was adopted in 1946 but it wouldn't have been allowed now because my adoptive parents had been turned down by adoption societies as too old. There was a bit of smoke and mirrors involved, it seems, probably helped along by the fact that I wasn't a baby, I was 2.

My sister was adopted in a similar manner, via a local doctor and it was only in about 1947 that it became law that all adoptions had to be done via a registered agency.

[Brietta]

My sister was adopted in a similar manner, via a local doctor and it was only in about 1947 that it became law that all adoptions had to be done via a registered agency.

My uncle was also adopted "illegally" sometime in the 1930's. It led to inheritance problems for my cousins on the death of his adoptive father who he and his mother predeceased.

I think there was moratorium when such adoptions could be ratified ... possibly 1947? ~ but before my time anyway and they didn't take advantage of it which I think caused the very expensive problem for his sons.

Looks like a lot of British families also have a story to tell.

[G-Unit]

My uncle was also adopted "illegally" sometime in the 1930's. It led to inheritance problems for my cousins on the death of his adoptive father who he and his mother predeceased.

I think there was moratorium when such adoptions could be ratified ... possibly 1947? ~ but before my time anyway and they didn't take advantage of it which I think caused the very expensive problem for his sons.

Looks like a lot of British families also have a story to tell.

It's not just the legality of it either. People who are adopted always have unanswered questions.

[sadie]

It's not just the legality of it either. People who are adopted always have unanswered questions.

I am sure you must have Gunit.  I feel sorry for you about that

From dates given, I wonder if the adopted children were pricipally war orphans, or the children of GI's / other foreign forces living temporarily in the UK, who post war abandoned the British mother and child, (whether born or still unborn), and returned to their home countries and possibly their wives?   Girls used to go crazy over GI's, they were so handsome and glamorous

I was only 8 so dont remember it well, but IIRC that was rather a pretty chaotic time in the UK

[G-Unit]

I am sure you must have Gunit.  I feel sorry for you about that

From dates given, I wonder if the adopted children were pricipally war orphans, or the children of GI's / other foreign forces living temporarily in the UK, who post war abandoned the British mother and child, (whether born or still unborn), and returned to their home countries and possibly their wives?   Girls used to go crazy over GI's, they were so handsome and glamorous

I was only 8 so dont remember it well, but IIRC that was rather a pretty chaotic time in the UK

Thank you Sadie, but it's the same for all adopted people; they all want to know. I now have most of my answers.There were all kinds of reasons during and at the end of WW2; men leaving to fight and dying, foreign soldiers, prisoners of war and just normal affairs.

The reasons in Portugal seem to be poverty or dysfunctional families. Family Courts in this country can allow children to be adopted against the parent's wishes and it sounds like there may have been some cases like that.

Religions seem to have always got involved in redistributing children. The mother and baby homes where young women were pretty much forced by their families to go. After the baby was born they looked after it for up to six weeks then had to give it up. At least adoption gave the child a life. Women turn to abortion instead if it's available.

[Brietta]

Mothers can sue State against illegal adoption of the IURD

14 DECEMBER 2017
00:00
Rute Coelho

Edir Macedo, 72, the leader of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, and grandfather of the Portuguese Vera and Luis

The mothers of ten children who were taken to other countries plan to fight in court, says Alexandra Borges

The Portuguese mothers of ten children who have been robbed from the family of an illegal home funded by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and adopted by bishops and pastors of the church are still considering to fight for justice for the restoration of truth. The crimes prescribed 20 years after the facts (from 1994 to the end of the 1990s). But the truth does not prescribe: "The mothers are considering the possibility of bringing the Portuguese State to court in a joint action. But they do not intend to proceed with a lawsuit against the IURD because they consider that they would claim dirty money," he told the DN. journalist Alexandra Borges, co-authored with Judith França of TVI's "The Secret of the Gods" information series, which debuted this week.

The determination of responsibilities in a civil action has short deadlines, of three years, that increase to five when it implies criminal facts, explains a magistrate of the area of ​​Family and Children that does not want to be identified. That is why the inquiry that the prosecutor's office opened this week to investigate IURD's alleged network of illegal adoptions in the 1990s could result in filing. But, as the same source said, "the various entities involved may have an interest in finding out what happened and what has failed and whether there are still sprains in the system that allow this to happen again." The magistrate remembers that the times were different and there were not the mechanisms of control that exist today. "In the 1990s, which focuses on TVI's research, there were still no promotion and protection of minors. If there were grounds for the removal of a child from the biological parents, the minor was institutionalized and it was sufficient to certify the disinterest or abandonment of the parents so that the Public Prosecutor or Social Security made a proposal for the application of a confidence measure for adoption. The process was in the absence of biological parents. "

The Social Security, which earlier this week filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office, which opened a case, acted after TVI was contacted about the discovery of the shocking facts that occurred more than 20 years ago in the illegal home (until 2001) "Casa de Acolhimento Mano Amiga", in Camarate. Social Security said after questioning the TV station. It was only now that the state's highest adoption authority concluded that the home financed by the IURD was not legal at the time of the events (between 1995 and 2001), even though Social Security sent children there, as reported in the report.

The mothers of the 10 children targeted in the TVI investigation are "guarded and some have family support," said Alexandra Borges. "We are very worried about Maria, Vera's mother, Luis and Fialho." The first two were adopted by Viviana Freitas, daughter of IURD founder Edir Macedo, a US resident, and Fábio was adopted by another element of the church hierarchy. The three brothers were 3 years, 2 years and 9 months, respectively, when they were taken home.

Until Friday, the series "The Secret of God" will continue to tell the story of the three brothers, culminating in the death of Fabio for drug abuse. Vera and Luis Carlos de Andrade, the grandchildren of the founder of IURD, the millionaire bishop Edir Macedo, filmed a video, already divulged, to guarantee that they were not abducted but "legally adopted by an American family and we lived until our 20 years with this family in the United States. " Maria, the biological mother, was saddened by what she saw. "She thinks the kids are being used and it cost her because she thought at least they wanted to talk to her," said Alexandra Borges.
https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/maes-podem-processar-estado-contra-adocoes-ilegais-da-iurd-8983507.html

[Brietta]

Exclusive N-TV: José Alberto Carvalho explains why he cried live in the debate on the IURD case
12/16/2017

The long-standing TV pivot did not resist and was thrilled several times throughout Friday's broadcast, with the alleged identities protected, two alleged victims of the IURD in the case of illegal adoptions that TVI has been investigating. In exclusive to N-TV, José Alberto Carvalho explained why he did not hold back.

"It ends here this special edition of" 21st Hour, which was in my professional life the hour and a half of the most intense emotions I can remember. " It was in this way, in tears, that José Alberto Carvalho ended Friday the emission of the aftermath of the fifth episode of the report "Secret of the Gods."

In the broadcast of TVI24, which started shortly after the end of "Jornal das 8" on the main antenna, where the fifth episode of the investigation was shown, the pivot received in studio "Maria", the fictitious name of the mother who will have seen the children stolen Vera, Luís and Fábio, and Patricia, now 20, the only daughter who continues to live with her mother.

Behind a canvas, with their identity protected, they both told their story, in a description of great tension, in an issue that also had the journalist Alexandra Borges, one of the authors of the investigation, a psychologist and a former resident in the home of the IURD .

"It was a moment of great tension, of great emotion, before the brave reports of that mother who was authentically tortured over the years. There is no other word to classify what they did to that woman: she was a victim of torture, deprived of her children and all the memories ", begins by telling N-TV José Alberto Carvalho.

The pivot, who during several moments of the emission lowered his head, hesitated in the questions and let out a few tears, explains that it was "the first time this" happened to him.

"It was emotional brutality. It had never happened to me to cry in direct on the television, but this time I could not resist ", assumes, explaining that it was in a position different from the one of the spectators.

"At home, the spectators saw those two people behind a tarp, but before the program started, I saw their faces, greeted them, talked. It's very different, "he says.

With 30 years of career, the professional remembers that "a man is not of iron" and relativiza the emotion. "Times have changed. In the past, it was said that a journalist could not show emotion. But in the old days, too, everyone was treated on television by Mr. Doctor, Mr. Engineer. No one remembers that today. Social changes take us to a more informal social life, also in television communication, "he explains.

At age 49 and father of four children, two of them minors, José Alberto Carvalho has no doubts that "paternity and motherhood completely change the sensitivity of each one in relation to the world."

"In the life of a father and a mother, the first steps of the children and the first words spoken are some of the most striking moments that remain forever in our memory. That woman was deprived of those moments. As a parent, I can not imagine not having lived through such a happy phase of my children's growth. "

The report "Secret of the Gods", by Alexandra Borges and Judite França, marked the current news throughout the week, along with another investigation of TVI, signed by Ana Leal, on the accounts of the association Raríssimas.
https://www.n-tv.pt/acontece/exclusivo-n-tv-jose-alberto-carvalho-explica-por-que-razao-chorou-em-direto-no-debate-sobre-o-caso-iurd/

[Brietta]

PGR opens inquiry into prosecution in the case of IURD adoptions
DECEMBER 19, 2017

Process is led by the DIAP and is in the secret of justice

The Attorney General's Office has opened an inquiry "to investigate the possible existence of incorrect or irregular procedures" of the Public Ministry in the case of adoptions in the home of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the PGR said in a statement.

"This case is directed by the Department of Criminal Investigation and Action of Lisbon and is in secret of justice. In addition, the matter in question is intrinsically linked with concrete processes that have run in the jurisdiction of the family and children, a special and relevant area Therefore, considering that the functional performance of the Public Prosecutor's Office within the scope of this universe of proceedings can not fail to be analyzed, the Attorney General of the Republic has ordered the opening of an investigation to investigate the possible existence of incorrect or irregular procedures, explains the note sent to the press this Tuesday.

A seven-month journalistic inquiry by TVI found that at least 10 Portuguese children were "stolen" from biological mothers in the 1990s from a reception center in Lisbon funded by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God ), and taken to illegal international adoption.

Contacted by the DN, the Attorney General's Office replied that "there is an investigation related to this matter and it has been referred to the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action of Lisbon for investigation." The Judiciary Police, through its deputy national director, Pedro do Carmo, told the DN that "never any entity or authority has ever denounced any of these cases to the PJ. For us it is an unknown matter." There is another problem: "The crimes have been prescribed." Serious crimes such as child abduction or criminal association have a maximum term of 20 years to investigate, he explained. For example, the first case reported in the report of three siblings taken to the United States happened in 1995, and prescribing it in 2015.

Social Security acted now

The ongoing investigation into the DIAP de Lisbo would serve to clarify responsibilities but if all the facts prescribed will be difficult. Anyway, the process was opened after a complaint made now by Social Security to the Public Prosecutor. And Social Security acted after TVI was contacted about the discovery of the shocking facts that occurred more than 20 years ago. "In the context of the research carried out by TVI on the" Casa de Acolhimento Mano Amiga ", integrated in the Social Work of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), the Institute of Social Security, ..) a participation to the Public Ministry / DIAP of Lisbon, "Social Security reported after being questioned by the television station. It was only now that the state's highest adoption authority concluded that the home financed by the IURD was not legal at the time of the events (between 1995 and 2001), although Social Security sent children there, as reported in the report. "Following the e-mails sent by the television station, the Social Security Institute IP had the opportunity to legally review this matter, concluding that this host house, not being licensed, was in breach of applicable legal provisions," the statement said.

According to information provided by TVI, IURD currently has 9 million faithful, spread across 182 countries, 320 bishops and about 14 thousand pastors.

This evangelical church was founded in the late 1970s and is led by Bishop Edir Macedo, considered one of the richest men in Brazil.

The IURD refutes the accusations of kidnapping and a scheme of illegal adoption of Portuguese children and considers them the result of "a defamatory and lying campaign".
https://www.dn.pt/portugal/interior/pgr-abre-inquerito-a-atuacao-do-ministerio-publico-no-caso-das-adocoes-da-iurd-8997390.html