Francisca Van Dunem is a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 lawyer. Since 2001 she is the director of the Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 public prosecution service.

Education

She has a law degree, Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, awarded in 1977. She was subject to competitive examination for the Portuguese public prosecutor

Public Ministry (Portugal)

The Ministério Público is the Portuguese body of autonomous magistrates formed of public prosecutors. It is a body of the Portuguese judicial system which includes the Procuradoria-Geral da República....

's office in 1979.

Professional career

Her most relevant professional activities included judicial activities such as trainee deputy public prosecutor (Lisbon and Loures

Loures

Loures Municipality is a municipality to the north of Lisbon. Created on 26 July 1886 by a royal decree, the municipality currently occupies an area of 169 km² and has about 200,000 inhabitants . It borders the municipalities of Odivelas, Sintra, Mafra, Arruda dos Vinhos, Vila Franca de Xira...

 courts) (1979-1980); deputy public prosecutor (Lisbon labour court) (1980-1983); deputy public prosecutor (Lisbon criminal court) (1983-1985); deputy public prosecutor (Lisbon public prosecution service) (1987-1989); member of the Principal State Prosecutor's private law firm (1989-2001); and Deputy Principal State Prosecutor, Director of the Lisbon public prosecution service (since 2001).

Personal life

She was born in 1955 in Luanda

Luanda

Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

, then the capital of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola. She went to Lisbon in the early 1970s in order to study law at the University of Lisbon. In April 1974, the Portuguese Estado Novo regime was overthrown by a leftist military coup

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

 and in 1975 Angola become a newly-independent communist country - the People's Republic of Angola

People's Republic of Angola

The People's Republic of Angola was a self-declared socialist state that was established in 1975 after it was granted independence from Portugal, akin to the situation in Mozambique. The newly-founded nation enjoyed friendly relations with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the People's Republic of...

. In 1977 she was awarded her law degree. Her brother José Van Dunem was murdered in a purge

Purge

In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...

 occurred in Agostinho Neto

Agostinho Neto

António Agostinho Neto served as the first President of Angola , leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the war for independence and the civil war...

's post-independence Angola that same year. Francisca didn't return to Angola and pursued a family life and a professional career in Portugal. She is married and has one son. They live in Greater Lisbon area.