Telegraph: British woman facing charges for ‘criticising Portuguese lawyer’
November 30 2009A British woman, Serena Wylde, is facing criminal charges in Portugal after making a complaint about a lawyer in the Algarve, human rights campaigners have said.
The 58 year-old, from Putney, south-west London, could be jailed for up to nine months if she is found guilty of aggravated criminal defamation, the Fair Trials International campaign group said.
She wrote to the solicitor's regulatory body asking for disciplinary action to be taken against Pimenta de Almeida Borges, who is the son of a Supreme Court Judge in the country, after a dispute with a neighbour.
The ''Ordem dos Advogados'' regulatory body took no action but sent the letter on to the prosecutor's office.
In February 2007 two police officers arrived at her home in Praia da Luz and told her to report to police. She was later charged.
Jago Russell, Chief Executive of Fair Trials International, said: ''This prosecution flies in the face of free speech and puts those in positions of power beyond reproach.
"I am horrified that Serena is being threatened with a prison sentence for making a complaint intended to protect others from a lawyer's unscrupulous behaviour.''
Serena Wylde said: "It is devastating to be charged with a criminal offence.
"In my case this happened because I told what I believe to be the truth and it has been turned against me by those who don't want to hear it.
"This ordeal has made me question every reference point of my daily security, and even my own sanity."
No one from the solicitor's regulatory body was available for comment.