Lisbon/Madrid - Portugal's longest ever trial, dealing with a child abuse scandal that raised doubts about the functioning of the country's democracy, is nearing its end.

Seven people, including several prominent personalities, are charged with abusing 32 children from the state-owned Casa Pia chain of care homes.

As prosecution and defence are now presenting their arguments to wrap up the four-year trial in Lisbon, the Portuguese are finally hoping to find out the truth about a sordid affair that shocked the nation.

The scandal broke in November 2002 when a media report began uncovering the alleged abuse of children, most of them boys, over several decades.

The trial, however, only deals with cases suspected to have occurred in 1999 and 2000.

The only accused to have made admissions of guilt is Carlos Silvino, 52, a former Casa Pia employee who is charged with dozens of cases of abuse and with having brought children to orgies against payment.

Silvino explained his behaviour by saying that he himself had been abused as a child.

The other suspects include former television presenter Carlos Cruz, a former ambassador, a high-society doctor and a well-known lawyer.

The rest are a former Casa Pia deputy director and a woman whose house was allegedly used for the orgies.

The prominent accused have claimed never to have met the alleged victims, presenting receipts and documents to prove they were away at the time when the crimes were committed.

Defence lawyers also sought inconsistencies in the testimonies of the victims.

Charges against three other people were dropped earlier on in the trial. They included former Socialist labour minister Paulo Pedroso, who was granted 100,000 euros (130,000 dollars) in damages after spending five months in preventative custody.

Evidence of abuse at the Casa Pia homes had surfaced already in the 1980s, but investigations were dropped and documents disappeared in what many believe to have been a cover-up.

After the scandal broke, it took on political connotations, with attempts to implicate several Socialist politicians in the affair.

The trial itself was slow, with excessive attempts to "whitewash" the accused, victims' lawyer Miguel Matias claimed.

Defence lawyer Paulo Sa e Cunha, however, stressed the complicated nature of the trial which heard nearly 1,000 witnesses and experts, producing 60,000 pages of documents during more than 400 sessions.

Suspicions that members of Portugal's elite had abused children staying at one of the country's oldest and most respected public institutions, possibly with the complicity of some authorities, plunged the nation into a serious crisis.

The alleged paedophiles targeted the most defenceless children, such as orphans and deaf-and-dumb boys.

The Casa Pia affair raised doubts about the solidity of the democracy which had been restored after the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

It was compared with the case of paedophile and child murderer Marc Dutroux, which uncovered a picture of judicial and political corruption in Belgium.

Yet even if the accused are found to be innocent, the trial has already made Portugal tighten measures against paedophiles and contributed to protecting the rights of children, victims' lawyer Adelino Granja said.