7 PSP agents detained. There are crimes of torture and rape against homeless people and immigrants in question

Authorities detained seven PSP agents following the investigation into crimes of serious torture, rape, assault and abuse of power at Esquadra do Rato, in Lisbon. The victims are drug addicts, homeless people and foreigners.

In a statement, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the PSP announced that seven arrests, nine home searches and seven non-home searches of police stations were made, as part of a second investigation into events that occurred at the Rato Police Station, under the terms of the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) in Lisbon.

“Seven arrest warrants were issued for seven PSP agents”, in an investigation in which, says the police command, “the possible committing various crimes, namely, serious torture, rape, abuse of power, qualified physical harm”.

“The investigations carried out by the PSP were presided over by seven MP magistrates”, indicates the statement.

In the same document, the PSP states that it “will continue to collaborate with the competent judicial authorities to fully investigate the facts and achieve justice”.

Who were those targeted?

Already in January the arrest was announced and preventive arrest of two agentsaccused of torture and rape, targeting mainly drug addicts, homeless people and foreigners.

The two police officers, aged 21 and 24, were arrested on July 10 last year, after house searches and at the Bairro Alto and Rato police stations, in Lisbon, and it was the PSP that reported the facts under investigation.

The two defendants were accused by the MP of crimes of torture, abuse of power, rape, offenses against physical integrity, among others.

The indictment states that the two agents they attacked people they had detained with “punches, slaps and butts to the head, and even filmed and photographed some of these situations and their victims”.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that the agents chose mostly drug addicts, people who committed minor crimes, many with foreign nationality and illegally, or in a homeless situation.

One of the reported cases is that of a Moroccan citizen who was allegedly sodomized with a stick by one of the defendants and beaten and then .

Many of these abuses were filmed and shared in WhatsApp groups with dozens of other agents.

At the time, the Public Ministry admitted the constitution of more defendants and the identification of more cases in the process.

“Despite its criminal relevance, the steps already taken, additional steps are still needed”, explains the Public Ministry, which requested a new inquiry so that the investigation can continue.