The military were "betrayed" by cell phones. The case was revealed by Lidador NotÃcias on the day 22 of September of last year and results from the extraction of a certificate of the process, tried in Beja, who sentenced five soldiers in 2019.
Seven soldiers from the GNR post in Vila Nova de Milfontes from the Territorial Detachment of Odemira, They were charged by prosecutors (MP) from that village of 33 crimes, among which kidnapping, offenses to qualified physical integrity and abuse of power. The victims are from Asian countries and most have already left Portugal.
The case was revealed exclusively by Lidador NotÃcias (LN), in 22 September last year, when he realized that four soldiers, two of whom were convicted in the previous assault on Indian immigrants, had been constituted as defendants by the Judiciary Police (PJ) Setubal.
According to TVI/CNN Portugal, who had access to the MP's defendant's dispatch handed down last day 10 November, the military committed the crimes "by making an excessive use of the power of authority that the position gives them".
When five soldiers were arrested, in 8 May 2019, for the acts perpetrated against immigrants, the PJ seized and analyzed the mobile phones of the defendants, having detected the photographs and videos where other Asian citizens are forced to do push-ups, jumping jacks and crawling both outside and inside the post.
After viewing the images, inspectors referred the case to the Odemira Public Prosecutor's Office who extracted a certificate and ordered the investigation in an autonomous process.
The PJ of Setúbal notified the two soldiers, of 24 and 27 year old, cell phone owners, to make statements having constituted the same defendants. Attending the actions were five other soldiers from the post, but only two of them have been identified, defendants were also constituted. The other three military men who appeared in the photos and filming, their backs were, direct identification is not possible, not having been identified by any of the four defendants. However, the commander of the post was called to testify before the PJ and identified the aforementioned soldiers by the voices.
In a case judged at the Court of Beja whose judgment was handed down on the day 3 July 2020, and which originated at a dinner on the last night of September 2018, in a restaurant in Almograve (Odemira), the two main ones involved in this investigation that accuses the seven soldiers, They were sentenced, an 4 years in prison and another to 3 years and 6 months. Both were suspended from functions at the GNR during 2 year old.
GNR issues statement
The GNR clarified that two of the seven military men who filmed themselves torturing Asian immigrants in Odemira (Beja), in 2019, are serving a suspension sentence decreed by the Ministry of Internal Administration, while the others await sanction measures.
According to GNR, three of the agents of the Territorial Detachment of Odemira are repeat offenders, after having been “involved in assaults on Indonesian individuals”, in 2018. The clarification comes after a CNN/TVI investigation that reported the accusation of seven elements of the GNR out of a total of 33 crimes, for humiliating and torturing immigrants in Odemira.
“Regarding this second process, under its terms in the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Guard informs that of the seven defendants, two repeat offenders are serving a suspension sentence decreed by S. Ex. the MAI (Ministry of Internal Affairs)”, reads in a statement.
Segundo a GNR, the remaining five soldiers await sanction measures, which are the responsibility of the General Inspectorate of Internal Administration (IGAI), entity overseeing the ongoing investigation process.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
