A 51-year-old man was arrested by the Setúbal Judicial Police and will remain in preventive detention for crimes of arson, threat, coercion, and possession of a prohibited weapon committed in March in the municipality of Seixal, it was revealed today.
In a statement, the Judicial Police (PJ) noted that in May 2024, the suspect rented an annex of a villa in the parish of Fernão Ferro but later stopped paying the rent and electricity. The owners filed an eviction lawsuit and a precautionary order for payment of the overdue rent.
In retaliation, the PJ reports, the suspect, who has previously served a prison sentence for property crimes, threatened the owners by “even displaying a firearm” and stated he would “set fire to the villa, annexes, and their contents,” threats that were executed in March.
“He eventually entered the villa through an open window and, using a flammable substance with direct flame, set fire to a mattress,” the statement reads.
The fire destroyed several rooms of the villa and “only did not have more serious consequences due to the rapid intervention of the fire brigade,” the PJ adds, further stating that after the initial judicial interrogation, the most severe coercive measure, preventive detention, was applied to the suspect.
