Authorities have arrested seven (further) PSP police officers following a long-running investigation into crimes of ‘severe torture, rape, assault, and abuse of power’ at Rato Police Station in Lisbon.
In a statement released today, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the PSP announced that seven arrests have been made, and that nine house searches and seven non-domiciliary searches of police stations were carried out as part of a second inquiry, conducted by Lisbon’s Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP).
In the same document, the PSP stated that it “will continue to collaborate with the competent judicial authorities to fully ascertain the facts and bring justice.”
This is an investigation that goes back several months and is still ongoing.
In January, the arrest and preventive detention of two young officers was announced. The 21 and 24-year-old were accused of torture and rape, mainly targeting drug addicts, homeless people, and foreigners.
The indictment states that the pair assaulted people they had arrested with “punches, slaps, and blows to the head, even filming and photographing some of these situations and the respective victims.”
One of the cases reported was that of a Moroccan citizen who was allegedly sodomised by one of the defendants with a truncheon, beaten, then taken in a patrol car and abandoned on the street.
Many of these abuses were filmed and shared in WhatsApp groups with ‘dozens of other officers’.
At the time, the Public Prosecutor’s Office acknowledged that more defendants would be charged, and more cases would come to light.
“Despite their criminal relevance and the steps already taken, further steps are still needed,” explained the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has requested a new inquiry so that the investigation can continue.
source : LUSA
