In the wake of yesterday’s revelations, Portugal’s Public Prosecution Service has ordered an autonomous investigation to be started into the alleged falsification of a report by the PSP police force, following the fatal shooting by one of their own of Cape Verdean chef Odair Moniz, last October.
A statement from the public prosecutor says that “in the course of the investigation carried out, the suspicion arose that the report drawn up by the Public Security Police (PSP) suffered from inconsistencies and inaccuracies.”
“One of the suspicions that exists is the authorship” of the report, “since it was drawn up at 14:55 on October, 21 2024” by the PSP officer who shot the victim.
“On that date and at that time, he was being interrogated by the Judicial Police – a process that began at 2.40 p.m. and ended at 6 p.m. on 21 October 2024… at the DLVT [Lisbon and Tagus Valley Directorate] – PJ, in Lisbon.”
For this reason, by order of December 19, 2024, “a certificate was drawn up for an autonomous investigation into these facts.”
The PSP officer has now been charged with homicide, a crime punishable by a prison sentence of eight to 16 years.
The Public Prosecution Service has also requested that “the defendant await the further course of the proceedings subject to the coercive measure of suspension from exercising the profession of PSP agent.”
The officer in question is currently on sick leave and there is still no date for him to return to work.
Moniz, a 43-year-old Cabo Verde national who lived in the Bairro do Zambujal area of Amadora, was shot by the PSP officer in the early hours of October 21, in Cova da Moura – a neighbourhood in the same municipality in the Lisbon district.
According to the PSP’s official version, Moniz “fled” in a car after seeing a police vehicle and crashed in Cova da Moura, where, when approached by the officers, he “resisted arrest and tried to assault them with a bladed weapon.”
SOS Racismo and the Vida Justa movement have always contested the police version, demanding a “serious and impartial” investigation to establish responsibility – arguing that “a culture of impunity” in the police force generally is at stake.
Following Moniz’s death, there were riots in Zambujal and other neighbourhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, where buses, cars and rubbish bins were burnt and vandalised, with around two dozen people arrested and as many suspects identified.
In addition to the legal proceedings, disciplinary proceedings are underway by the Inspectorate-General for Internal Administration (IGAI) and within the PSP itself.
Source material: LUSA
