Portugal's prosecutors probe police action at Lisbon and Porto housing protests

Inquiry widened to Lisbon and Porto

Portugal's Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público) has opened an inquiry into police action at the housing protests in Lisbon. The Procuradoria-Geral da República confirmed on Thursday, 12 November, that inquiries are running in both Lisbon and Porto. Prosecutors had earlier announced a probe only into the overnight police action in Porto on 15 October. The new file folds in the later incidents in that city and also covers the Lisbon interventions on 20 October, 25 October and 1 November.

“There are inquiries in Lisbon and Porto related to the police intervention.”

An Expresso report says the prosecution now confirms it is also examining police charges in Lisbon during the protest camp at Rossio. Until then, only the Porto operation had been confirmed as under investigation.

The dispersal on 25 October

In the early hours of 25 October, the PSP broke up the housing protests in Lisbon and Porto with batons and dogs. The operation followed more than two hours of tension, along with orders for people to leave and for tents to be removed. Protesters refused, citing the constitutional right to demonstrate. The police relied on an August 1974 decree-law that sets 00:30 as the time limit for gatherings. The Inspecção-Geral da Administração Interna (IGAI) told Lusa it had opened an administrative process to establish the circumstances of the two police interventions, which left people injured, and to assess the procedures used.

Arrests and injuries

Early on 1 November, 13 protesters were detained in Lisbon and Porto. According to the PSP, 13 police officers were injured in Porto. A defence source told Lusa that the prosecutors' decision covers about 85 protesters detained by the PSP for disobedience at the Lisbon camps in the early hours of 20 October, 25 October and 1 November.

Cases sent to inquiry

On 2 November the Ministério Público asked the Constitutional Court to assess a rule on the time limit for gatherings. While it waits for that ruling, prosecutors sent the cases of the detained Lisbon protesters to inquiry instead of bringing them to trial. Under that decision, the protesters cannot be tried yet, and an investigation has to run first. The Constitutional Court has yet to decide whether a time limit for gatherings exists.

Separate tracks

The IGAI process is administrative and examines the procedures the police used, while the prosecution's inquiry concerns the interventions themselves. Both tracks cover the October and November operations in the two cities. The outcome for the detained protesters depends on the Constitutional Court's decision on the 1974 limit.