Yesterday’s swoop by the counter-terrorism unit of Portugal’s PJ judicial police was apparently focused on foiling a concerted attack on the country’s Islamic community.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã suggests the attack being planned was to have been ‘the largest ever in Portugal’ – and it was allegedly being masterminded by the jailed leader of the infamous 1143 movement, Mário Machado, currently serving a two-year 10 month sentence for crimes of hatred towards women (in this case, women of the left-wing).
“Mário Machado was jailed, but he never changed his life. The head of the 1143 movement – a neo-nazi nationalist group – continued to give orders from Alcoentre prison,” says CM today – suggesting the planned attack was close to its start point.
“Everything was scheduled so that the attack would start in February”. The thrust of the plan was to use ‘friendly journalists’ (and no doubt other means) to sow disinformation to the point that it would fire up prejudice against Islamic communities in this country, and lead to people ‘doing something about it’…
PJ national director Luís Neves told reporters: “We acted in a preventative form, because we don’t want to see people made invalids once again, people whose houses are torched, or people who are killed.”
CM highlighted another affirmation: “Politically motivated crimes” will always see a response from the PJ.
Thus, 37 people allegedly connected to the 1143 movement were arrested in the operation – the majority for crimes of xenophobia/ racism.
Among the 37 are at least one member of the PSP (Public Security Police) force, one member of the military (Air Force) and three members and former political candidates of the far-right party CHEGA (this claim is made today by Jornal de Notícias).
Mário Machado has been made an official suspect in the investigation after searches of his prison cell revealed considerable ‘material linked to the crimes’.
Operation Brotherhood, as this investigation has been called, has been collecting information for months, explains CM – and involved ‘phone-tapping’, which allowed police to understand the extent of activities being planned.
Also among those arrested yesterday were a number of ‘football supporters’ already ‘known to police’ for sundry crimes.
A statement by the PJ explains that those targeted in yesterday’s multiple searches “are suspected of having founded a criminal organisation with the sole purpose of carrying out activities that incited discrimination, hatred and racial violence, all within a hierarchical and strongly established structure, with a distribution of roles.
A “large amount of propaganda and merchandising material alluding to violent far-right ideology, namely neo-Nazi, was also seized, as well as various weapons and tactical equipment.”
The 37 are due to appear at the Central Criminal Investigation Court in Lisbon for their first judicial interrogation today, with a view to applying bail measures, or otherwise.
The investigation is being led by the DIAP (Department of Investigation and Penal Action) in Lisbon.
Source: Correio da Manhã/ Polícia Judiciária/ Jornal de Notícias
