Accounts surface just as investigation opens into claims of police beatings in Setúbal
Police beatings are the news topic of the day, following the announcement by the inspector-general of internal administration that her entity (IGAI) has taken over the process of inquiry opened by Setúbal PSP command into the violent beating of four young people suspected of having been joyriding in a car.
The beatings were filmed by a resident disturbed by the commotion outside, and have already appeared on national television.
But while IGAI investigates the actions of PSP in Setúbal, in Odemira SIC Notícias has reported about a climate of insecurity that began with the arrival of the new GNR contingent in August, but which has intensified in the last few weeks.
Says SIC: “ The village of S. Luís, in Odemira, is outraged by the GNR’s behaviour. In the last month and a half, at least four people have been violently assaulted and threatened, and two complaints have already been formally lodged against local agents”.
SIC’s report begins with images of alleged injuries suffered by victims who say they were beaten inside the GNR police station.
The various accounts tally in as much as the ‘victims’ appear to have been doing nothing ‘wrong’: one was walking his dogs; one said something a GNR agent didn’t like (he remarked on the speed of a GNR vehicle driving through the village); another, aged 21, didn’t have his documents on him. This last victim says that on the way to the police station, in handcuffs, the GNR agents stopped on a dirt road and punched and kicked him. He was astonished by the level of brutality for simply not having his papers on him. Inside the police station there were further beatings, and the young man (Portuguese) claims a gun was put to his head. “They told me they would kill me and my girlfriend, and leave (our bodies) in the woods…”
An Italian living in Odemira told SIC he too was attacked when he was in a café. He was apparently accused of theft, his head “hit against the wall of the lavatories”.
SIC says “the population is concerned, and the parish council has called for an investigation.
“The S. Luís post serves a total of five parishes, including the village of Colos.
“The sergeant in charge was not available to give a statement and the GNR has yet to issue any clarification on the situation”.
But as this report played out, so too, via Lusa, did the interview with Anabela Cabral Ferreira, the inspector general of internal administration, who remarked on the violence of the images in the video taken of the police beatings in Setúbal.
The Setúbal incident took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning after the PSP was informed that five young people had stolen a car.
According to the PSP, when agents arrived at the scene in a residential street, they came across “a car in the middle of the carriageway with its lights switched off”. One of the five suspects managed to escape, but the other four were apprehended.
The PSP said that three of the suspects, aged between 17 and 18, were arrested and the fourth, a minor, “has been handed over to his mother”.
The PSP also said that it “only learnt” about the video yesterday and “set up an internal inquiry to ascertain the appropriateness and proportionality of the use of force” by the police.
This is the inquiry now taken over by IGAI.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
