Police chief admits having officer among terror suspects “is serious”

The director of Portugal’s Public Security Police (the PSP) has admitted the involvement of a police officer in the neo-Nazi group Movimento Armilar Lusitano (MAL) is “serious and exceptional”, pledging full cooperation with the justice authorities.

“Even a single case is serious; even a single allegation is serious – I do not wish to downplay this,” Carrilho told journalists on the sidelines of the seminar organised by the PSP entitled “Road Safety: Preventive Awareness and its Impact on Accident Rates”.

Carrilho was questioned over the public prosecutor’s office indictment, made public yesterday, in which nine official suspects – one of whom is a PSP officer who was serving with Lisbon Municipal Police – are charged in the case relating to MAL (Movimento Armilar Lusitano) with terrorist offences, accused of plotting attacks on political targets, parties, journalists and academics.

The neo-Nazi group, allegedly led by a PSP police chief, stands accused of various offences and, according to the public prosecutor’s office’s indictment cited in various media outlets, is alleged to have gone as far as to plan an attack on the Lisbon residence of the prime minister, Luís Montenegro.

“These are exceptional cases and at this stage we must allow the justice system to take its course,” said Carrilho today.

“Every time there is a case, every time an allegation of misconduct arises, we report it, we investigate it – provided we are granted the necessary powers from a criminal law perspective – so that public trust in our institution, the Public Security Police, remains as it is,” said Luís Carrilho, emphasising that he would have preferred “this case not to have happened”.

The director of the PSP also noted that it is “important for institutions to be trustworthy, and the PSP is highly trusted”, stressing that “cases and allegations of unlawful conduct must be investigated”.

“The key difference between a country with a democratic police force and one with a non-democratic police force is that, in a non-democratic country or in a police force that is not like ours – with its 159 years of history – such cases are, as the saying goes, swept under the carpet. We do not do that,” he said.

The prosecution also alleges offences of “terrorist offences relating to the manufacture and possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives; the acquisition, receipt and training for terrorist activities; recruitment and solicitation to join a terrorist group; incitement to commit terrorist offences; the financing of terrorism; arms trafficking and brokering; possession of a prohibited weapon; and unlawful access to and abuse of power” .

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the defendants attempted for years to “gather human, material, financial and logistical resources for future actions against these targets and against the Portuguese State, using weapons”, but the actions never materialised because the defendants believed they did not yet have the necessary resources or because “the time for such actions had not yet come”.

In addition to recruitment, training and logistical preparation, the investigation also concerns the manufacture of weapons and components using 3D printing, including “ghost weapons”, that is, weapons produced without serial numbers and therefore untraceable.

PM Luís Montenegro has said today that he was very surprised by the news that his apartment was under surveillance, and potentially in danger of being targeted – adding that he only learnt all this via the press yesterday, and feels he should have been informed by investigators much sooner.

Source material: LUSA