The Minister of Internal Administration rejects that suspicions of torture and rape at the Rato police station tarnish the image of the PSP, an institution that he considers has given “a lot to the country”.
Luís Neves, former director of the PJ and recently chosen to oversee the Internal Administration, said this Saturday that the suspicions of torture and rape at the Rato police station do not put the PSP’s image at risk.
“There are not a few people suspected of committing serious crimes that call into question the image of an institution that is more than a century old and has given a lot to the country,” he said.
Luís Neves recalled that it was the PSP that reported the case to the Public Ministry and continues to collaborate in the investigation. He apologized, even so, because the police should be the “haven of shelter for the most vulnerable and victims”, he argued.
“But I also want to say the following: the PSP has around 20 thousand fantastic men and women who give their best every day”, he added.
Remember that the seven PSP agents the trial of crimes of serious torture, completed and attempted rape, abuse of power, possession of a prohibited weapon, serious and qualified offenses to physical integrity.
In January, two agents were accused of torture and rape, targeting mainly drug addicts, homeless people and foreigners.
The indictment states that these two agents attacked people they had arrested with “punches and slaps and butts to the headhaving even filmed and photographed some of these situations and their victims”.
One of the cases reported is that of a Moroccan citizen who allegedly was sodomized with a stick by one of the defendants and beaten and then taken away in the patrol car and abandoned on the street.
Many of these abuses were filmed and shared in WhatsApp groups with dozens of other agents.
With Lusa
