The Prosecutor General’s Office expressed “deep regret” over the death of Joana Marques Vidal

The General Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) expressed “deep regret” on Tuesday over the death of former Attorney General Joana Marques Vidal, 68, at the São João Hospital in Porto after several weeks of hospitalization.

“The Attorney General of the Republic, the Office of the Attorney General and the Higher Council of the Ministry of Public Affairs express their deep regret at the death of the retired Deputy Attorney General, Maria Joana Raposo Marques Vidal, who held the position of Attorney General of the Republic in the years following 2012 to 2018,” reads a note published by PGR.

The note published on the official website also states that the funeral of Joana Marques Vidal will take place on Wednesday, “between 2:00 pm and 10:00 pm, in the chapel of São Lourenço, in Pedàçañes”, municipality of Águeda, adding that the funeral ceremonies will take place at 7:00 pm on Thursday at 2:00 pm and that the former Attorney General of the Republic will be cremated in the crematorium of Aveiro.

“The Seventh Day Mass will be celebrated in the Basilica da Estrela in Lisbon on July 15 at 7:00 p.m.,” the same message added.

According to a source close to the family, the republic’s former prosecutor general was in an induced coma after cancer surgery and eventually developed sepsis.

Joana Márquez Vidal was the first woman to head the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), holding the position from 2012 to 2018, and was succeeded by Lucilia Gago.

She was appointed to the PGR in October 2012 by then President of the Republic Cavaco Silva, taking over the position previously held by Pinto Monteiro.

Joana Marques Vidal was born in Coimbra, where she was born in 1955. She graduated in law in 1978 and joined the prosecutor’s office the following year.