The two agents also forced an immigrant to kiss their boots and left the victim with a permanent eye injury resulting from the attacks.
The Public Ministry (MP) accused two PSP agents of serious crimes of torture, aggression and rape, in a process that describes a pattern of extreme violence against people detained in various police stations in Lisbon throughout 2024. The victims, according to the indictment, were chosen for their special vulnerability, including immigrants, drug addicts and homeless people.
One of the episodes occurred on the night of May 9, 2024, when a woman, identified as Maria, after consuming alcohol on a terrace, was arrested following a disagreement with the owner of a brewery. At the Rato police station, she was handcuffed to a bench, with her arms open, in a position likened to a crucifix. According to , the MP suspects that it was slapped and threatened by an agent.
In the early hours of July 20, an African immigrant was intercepted in Martim Moniz in possession of hashish. Taken to the same police station, he was violently attacked with punches in the facehead and stomach, in addition to being threatened with a firearm. The MP also suspects that one of the agents added ecstasy tablets to the seized drug to justify the arrest for trafficking. The man was photographed in handcuffs, and the image was shared in a WhatsApp group of police officers, accompanied by offensive comments.
Another case occurred in the early hours of August 30, at the Bairro Alto police station. A man detained with a knife was the target of punches, kicks and death threats. According to the prosecution, a agent cut off the dreadlocks of his hair with his own knife seized, in a moment that was filmed and shared on the police’s internal networks, where homophobic comments and incitements to violence appeared.
On the same night, at the Rato police station, a Moroccan immigrant was beaten for several hours with an extendable baton. The MP also describes an attempted rape with a baton, stopped only by the intervention of a hierarchical superior. During the attacks, the victim was humiliated and forced to kiss the agents’ bootswith agents telling him: “beija, kiss, kiss, kiss” or “Welcome to Portugal”.
The episode was also filmed and shared in a WhatsApp group. The man was eventually found unconscious on the public road. Later, he was attacked again by the same agent, leaving him with a permanent eye injury. The victim never filed a complaint, for fear of not being believed.
The MP classifies the facts as “extremely serious”, highlighting the gratuitous violation of human rights and the impact on public trust. The two agents, placed at the Rato police station, have been in preventive detention since July 2024, following an investigation initiated by a complaint from the PSP’s own national management.
