A 64-year-old former Moroccan policeman who arrived in Portugal on a false passport in 2013 and is accused of have been a recruiting agent here for Daesh is pleading innocence.
His lawyer is pushing for the opening of judicial instruction so that Abdesselam Tazi has a chance to regain his freedom.
According to Lopes Guerreiro, the Public Ministry’s case “doesn’t even give the slightest sign that (Tazi) was connected in any way to an international terrorist organisation”.
Says Guerreiro, the eight charges involving recruitment for terrorism, financing terrorism and visa falsification with a view to financing terrorism should all be thrown out by a judge.
This is another case where newspaper reports may have ‘jumped the gun’. Fourteen months ago, national media was ablaze with revelations that two men given refugee status in this country were in fact Daesh terrorists who set about spreading their extremist ideology in an asylum centre outside Lisbon (click here).
One of the men was later arrested in France, suspected of plotting a terror attack, and it is his testimony – among others – that will now be considered by judge Ivo Rosa in the opening of judicial instruction.
When this story first hit the headlines, popular ‘fury’ was whipped up over the suggestion that refugees were being subsidised by the Portuguese government as they recruited terrorists which moved on from Portugal to commit atrocities.
Bearing in mind Tazi’s lawyer says there is no proof to be found for any of these allegations, this could end up being very embarrassing.
For now, judge Rosa has scheduled questioning of Tazi for June 6 (2pm) and the questioning of witnesses for the afternoons of June 7-11.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
