A BRAZILIAN doctor charged with murdering seven hospital patients - and under investigation for hundreds more suspicious deaths - has insisted on her innocence outside court.
"I have confidence in justice. Truth takes time and it will appear," Virginia Soares de Souza said on Tuesday in brief remarks to reporters after attending a hearing in Parana state.
De Souza, 56, who was freed on bail on March 20 after a month in jail, has denied all the charges against her.
She, along with three doctors and two nurses from the same unit, have been charged with the murder of seven patients since 2006, while a physiotherapist and a nurse face lesser charges.
But a team led by health ministry investigator Mario Lobato is re-examining the 1872 deaths that took place in the intensive care unit she led for seven years, focusing on some 300 cases deemed suspicious by family members.
Police obtained testimonies and wiretaps showing de Souza prescribed or administered medication that caused the patients to die from asphyxiation, according to the prosecution.
De Souza's lawyer Elias Mattar scoffed at the accusations, saying "whatever was administered to the patients was in the medical records. Could an ill-intentioned doctor write down all the evidence of a crime? That would be absurd."
The investigation began two years ago after former hospital employees and relatives of the patients reported allegedly suspicious deaths.
Globo television aired recordings in which de Souza said she wanted "to decongest" the unit. "Unfortunately, it is our role to be the springboard to the other world," she said in another recording.
