The woman, also decided by a collective of judges from the São João Novo court, will have to deliver monthly payments up to €11,600 to the Portuguese Province of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, the institution that manages the Children's Centre.

She will also have to make an apology to the injured party.

The crime for which she was convicted, that of qualified fraud, was committed between 2002 and 2004, being discovered only in 2007, at a time when the defendant had already fled abroad, appearing in court only in 2021.

The defendant, who currently lives in Luxembourg, where she works in an office, was exempted from attending most of the sessions, including this one to read the judgment.

An accomplice in the embezzlement, to whom the nun handed over the money, had already been tried in 2014, and was then sentenced to four and a half years in prison, suspended for an equal period.

In the trial, the nun claimed to have been seduced by the beneficiary of the embezzlement and said, at a trial hearing on November 10, that she only took checks totalling €48,000.

The crimes were possible because the defendant, while responsible for the secretariat of the Welfare Center, was in possession of blank checks, falsifying the signature of the mother superior, who was legally responsible for the account.