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Ten members of a highly-placed paedophile ring in Portugal, including a former cabinet minister and an ambassador, have been charged after a two-year investigation that has shocked the country.

Jose Souto Moura, the attorney general, said the accusations included rape, sexually abusing minors and organising a paedophile ring.

The allegations involve children who were in the care of Casa Pia (Pious House), a state-run orphanage in Lisbon, over the past 20 years.

No trial date has been set and all 10 accused deny the charges. They include Paulo Pedroso, a minister in the last socialist government who had been tipped for the leadership of his party; Carlos Cruz and Herman Jose, both television presenters; and Jorge Ritto, a former ambassador to South Africa.

Cruz, whose career spans more than three decades, was detained in February and Ritto has been in jail since May.

Pedroso, who says he is the victim of a smear campaign, spent more than four months in custody before a court ordered his release on probation in October.

The other accused include Manuel Abrantes, a former director of Casa Pia; Joao Ferreira Diniz, a doctor who allegedly carried out medical tests on the children before they were abused; Francisco Alves, a noted archaeologist; and Gertrudes Nunes, a 61-year-old woman who owns a rural home where some of the abuse is alleged to have occurred.

It is thought that more than 100 boys may have been abused.

The case has dominated the headlines for months and has outraged the country and shaken public trust in the establishment.

They have spoken of rape in cellars and car journeys to secluded houses under cover of darkness.

Gen Ramalho Eanes, a former president, is allegedly among those who knew what was going on at the home but failed to stop it.

He denies deliberately withholding information.

In November 2002, whistleblowers inside Casa Pia, which cares for 4,600 vulnerable children, many of them blind or deaf mute in 10 homes, told Portuguese news media that children in the homes were being sexually abused by wealthy paedophiles.

A key figure in the scandal is Carlos Silvino (46), a caretaker and driver at one of Casa Pia's homes.

He is accused of organising a paedophile ring centred on the homes, in addition to assaulting several boys himself.

Mr Silvino went on trial in October on 35 charges of rape and abuse relating to four boys in the homes. His victims are alleged to have included a boy with mental disabilities and a deaf-mute boy.