Portugal’s secret service has identified for the first time, citizens living in Portugal with links to the Islamic State.
Previous instances have involved Portuguese living abroad but retaining their Portuguese citizenship so this is the first time that a senior figure has admitted that there are home-grown supporters of the Islamic State.
The new director of Portugal’s intelligence service (SIS) did not give details on the number of cases or on what motivations have been identified.
Intelligence boss Adélio Neiva da Cruz says only that the Security Intelligence Service had tracked many Portuguese from the national territory who have been radicalised.
“In Portugal, the identified cases of radicalisation are a minority and the extent of the problem is not comparable to what is found in some countries," said Adélio Neiva da Cruz at the Communication Strategies in the Context of Terrorism conference Lisbon’s New University.
Neiva da Cruz said these revelations adds nothing to what was already included in the Homeland Security Annual Report in 2015, which mentioned that there had "been identified cases of radicalisation and connections between citizens and/or structures and jihadist organizations of a transnational nature."
The Judicial Police and the Attorney General's Office have not offered any information about these cases with the Attorney General’s Office confirming only the "existence of investigations in progress" on "facts relating to the so-called Islamic State, without any further detail unless these concern known cases of Portuguese who have been radicalised abroad.”
During his speech, the director of the SIS stressed that, overall, the number of citizens leaving for Syria to join terrorist organisations has decreased "by more than 50% last year" although he stressed that "the number of individuals open to radical messages from recruiters continues to increase."
Concerningly, Neiva da Cruz says that "there is no longer an appeal to travel to Syria," where the Islamic State is losing ground, as attacks have turned to countries of origin, such as the attacks in France and Belgium.
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