The National Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries, in a communicate sent this Wednesday to Lusa, mentions that the jury of the prize was alerted, by denunciations on social networks, that the work constituted a plagiarism of the tale "Serena", by Brazilian writer Paulo Cantarelli.
According to the statement, the jury, meeting on December 21, 2020, compared the two tales, "Infinite Woman" and "Serena," and concluded that there were "morphosyntactic, structural and content confluences that actually configure the real existence of plagiarism.
In view of the "facts proven," the jury, made up of professors Joaquim Martinho and Domingas Monteiro, states that the "original lost its creativity and violated the regulations of the prize," which determines that the works submitted to the contest must be original, unpublished and of their own creation.
The announcement of the prize winner, now annulled, took place in October 2020 and on December 10 Lourenço Catari Mussango received the diploma and an award.
The jury "aware that maintaining the award to a bibliographical title" that constitutes "plagiarism and lack of intellectual honesty" would constitute a "real sprain" to the regulations and prestige of the distinction, decided to withdraw the award.
In a statement to Lusa, the general director of the National Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries, Gabriel Cabuço, said that the prize is valued at 5000 dollars and the amount had not yet been delivered.
In June 2020, the jury of the Children's Book Garden Literary Prize also annulled the 2020 edition for verifying a "gross plagiarism and attempted deception" by the winner.
