Estela Silva / LUSA
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro
Despite not having received any complaints, IGAI opened a case for the operation of the PSP. The Government’s actions are being criticized within the PSDB itself.
The General Inspectorate of Internal Administration (IGAI) opened an administrative process to investigate the police operation carried out on Rua do Benformoso, in Martim Moniz, in Lisbon, last Thursday.
Although have not received formal complaints regarding abuses, the IGAI opened “on its own initiative an administrative process, requesting information from the PSP about the aforementioned operation”, reports the Inspector General of Internal Administration, Judge Pedro Figueiredo.
This process comes after the release of images and videos that generated controversy on social media and showed dozens of people lined up against a wallwithout being able to move for more than an hour.
The Public Security Police (PSP) justified the operation by saying that Rua do Benformoso has been scene of 52 incidents involving sharp weapons in the last two years, including a homicide in May.
In a statement, the PSP highlighted that the intervention was authorized by a prosecutor from the Public Ministry, based on complaints and reports from local police. During the operation, two people were arrested for possession of weapons and drugsand seized several items suspected of being linked to illicit activities, including 581 grams of hashish, bladed weapons, documents and more than 3,400 euros in cash.
Superintendent Luís Elias, commander of the Lisbon PSP, stated that all people were treated with dignity and that there were no incidents to be recorded.
Discomfort in the PSDB
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, asked for guarantees that the operation was carried out legally, but avoided commenting directly as he had not yet analyzed the images.
The most critical reaction came from Pedro Nuno Santos, leader of the opposition, who accused the government and the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, of promoting an environment of repression. The socialist warned of a “repressive culture” that starts with immigrants and can affect all citizens.
In contrast, the prime minister praised the importance of similar operations. “There is one thing that seems obvious to me, it is very important that operations like this occur, so that there is visibility and proximity in the policing and taxation of illicit activities”, said Luís Montenegro.
Although Montenegro has the public support of other PSD figures, such as the former Minister of Justice Paula Teixeira da Cruz, the former Minister of Internal Administration Miguel Macedo or the former party leader Luís Marques Mendes, the situation is divide the party.
José Pacheco Pereira is one of the PSD names that condemned the operation, classifying it as a “shame” for the party and questioning the implicit association between immigration and crime, remembering that it has not seen “an operation of this type against the No Name Boys”, the Benfica fans who this weekend were involved in clashes with the police in a restaurant.
A former vice-president of the party reveals that Montenegro’s comments “spill the water”, given that, despite the Government guaranteeing that it does not interfere in the work of the PSP, the prime minister publicly defended the carrying out of more operations of this kind. gender.
Fernando Negrão, former national director of the Judiciary Police and former parliamentary leader of the PSD, also considers that it was not “a normal procedure” because “limitations to people’s fundamental rights” are at stake, such as “the ability to move freely through the streets of a city”.
Former Secretary of State for the Environment José Eduardo Martins also confesses to Público that he was “quite uneasy” when he noticed that “only people who weren’t white” were pressed against the wall.
