The concerted raid on suspected Neo Nazis last week essentially ‘decapitated’ the leadership of the notorious Group 1143. The long-term ‘leader of the group’, former skinhead Mário Machado, has seen his current jail time extended – and the man who had been leading the movement ‘on the outside’ of the prison system has himself been placed in preventive custody.
As judge Nuno Dias Costa said in his decision to keep five of the 37 men arrested last week behind bars: “The former leadership and the current one are now in jail. We wait for the next, if it ever comes…”
But the reality is that 32 of the suspects alleged to have been planning a form of ‘racial war’ in Portugal (by stirring up violent reactions from the Muslim community) are essentially ‘back in civil society’.
Yes, most of them are subject to regular reporting at their local police stations, and prohibited from having contacts between one another, but they are not otherwise ‘being controlled’. And this is what may be behind the torrent of abuse and threats directed at PJ national director Luís Neves over social networks.
The thrust of all the publications is that Neves is following a ‘far-left’ agenda (in cracking down on the extreme right) and that this “cannot continue”.
There is a lot being said in private Whatsapp and Telegram groups ‘in defence of André Ventura’ (currently still in the running for President of the Republic), writes Correio da Manhã today, adding that all these insults, complaints and wider threats are being carefully monitored.
Meantime the lawyer defending Mário Machado has suggested his client is being persecuted, and that a lot of what has said in the press is patently untrue.
Sources: Correio da Manhã/ Observador
