Politicians from the Left Bloc (BE) have called for an urgent parliamentary hearing with the Minister of Internal Administration over a case of alleged police violence at a police station in Rato, Lisbon, made public on Thursday, 15th January.
The request follows the Public Prosecution Service’s decision to charge two officers of the Public Security Police (PSP), who were serving at the Rato station, but are currently in pre-trial detention, suspected of both torture and rape. The alleged crimes are said to have targeted primarily drug users, homeless people, and foreign nationals.
In its motion, the Left Bloc cites the official indictment, stating that the two officers, aged just 21 and 24, allegedly staged “the crucifixion of a detained woman, keeping her handcuffed to a bench in a position of extreme physical suffering, while filming the act for the purpose of later sharing and mockery” amongst other police officers. Additionally, the pair are accused of having “violently assaulted two homeless individuals”.
The party says it is “particularly alarming” that these acts were allegedly witnessed by other police officers who, rather than intervening to halt the torture, “limited themselves to watching, laughing, and recording images”.
In the same motion, MP Fabian Figueiredo, highlights as “a central element for political and hierarchical investigation” the fact that the original complaint originated from the national leadership of the police force itself, which flagged the alleged criminal conduct to prosecutors and actively cooperated in gathering evidence.
“While this demonstrates the functioning of internal control mechanisms, it simultaneously exposes a deeply troubling preventive vulnerability: the inability of the chain of command to eradicate a subculture of violence before heinous crimes are committed, allowing officers to passively witness acts of torture without triggering the duty of care incumbent upon them,” the politician argues.
According to Figeuiredo, the occurrence of crimes of this severity whilst individuals are in police custody “cannot be dissociated from a framework of structural failures in oversight and supervision, exhaustively documented”.
He seeks to question, “as a matter of urgency”, the Minister of Internal Administration, Maria Lúcia Amaral, on the implementation of the ‘Plan for the Prevention of Manifestations of Discrimination within the Security Forces and Services’.
According to the indictment, the prosecutor from Lisbon’s Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) has not yet ruled out further suspects being charged or additional cases being identified in the investigation into illegal activities conducted by police officers at the Rato station, beyond the two officers already accused of torture and rape.
Furthermore, the charges state that the two officers assaulted detainees with “punches, slaps and blows to the head with a baton”, even going so far as to film and photograph some of these incidents.
Prosecutors allege that the officers mainly selected drug users, people accused of minor offences, many of them foreign nationals, and individuals experiencing homelessness.
One of the cases described concerns a Moroccan citizen who was allegedly sodomised with a baton by one of the defendants, then beaten, placed in a patrol car, and later abandoned in the street.
“The use of a baton for sodomisation is reported in another incident, in which a broom handle was also used. Everything was filmed and often shared in WhatsApp groups with dozens of other police officers,” the indictment states.
Another case involves a foreign national who had been detained in Cais do Sodré, Lisbon, for possession of a weapon. According to prosecutors, the man had a gun pointed at his head and was subjected to “slaps to the face, punches to the head, and blows to the body” by the two officers.
Source: LUSA / RTP
