Eighteen PSP officers face unprecedented accusations of allegedly torturing Cova da Moura youths in racially-motivated case

Eighteen PSP police officers, among them a police Chief, are facing unprecedented charges of slander, physical offence and false testimony, aggravated by hate and racial discrimination, against six youths from the notorious Cova da Moura council estate in Lisbon.

According to the information available on the District Attorney’s website, the 18 PSP officers are also accused of other “cruel and degrading treatment or inhumane treatment and aggravated kidnapping” and falsifying documents.

The incident was triggered in February 2015 after a PSP vehicle was pelted with stones following a call-out to disturbances in the neighbourhood.

The accusation is a first for Portuguese criminal history and comes following a two-year investigation conducted by the PJ’s National Counterterrorism Unit into police violence against the six young Cova da Moura residents aged 23 to 25.

According to the Public Prosecutor (MP), in February 2015 the PSP officers “recorded facts in documents that did not correspond to the truth, practiced acts and uttered expressions that offended the body and the honour of the offended, made statements that did not correspond to the truth and deprived them of freedom. “

Público reports that the MP accuses everyone who was at the station of being involved in the occurrence, and has asked that all of the officers’ claims against the youths be shelved.

Early on in the investigation, according to the MP, the youths had been made the formal suspects in the case, after the PSP officers accused them of attempting to storm the Alfragide PSP station, which serves Cova da Moura, in an attempt to free another youth that had been arrested and was being held therein.

