“The initiation of disciplinary proceedings will be proposed to the Minister of Internal Administration, [Maria Lúcia Amaral], who has the legal competence for this purpose,” stated a source from the IGAI in a response today.
The source added that the General Inspection awaits the “order for the application of coercive measures” to have “an accurate understanding of the facts” imputed to each of the ten GNR military officers and one member of the PSP detained in operation “Safra Justa.”
The announcement of the coercive measures is scheduled for 6:00 PM on Saturday, confirmed a source from the Central Criminal Investigation Court in Lisbon, where the 17 individuals detained on Tuesday were interrogated by an examining judge.
According to information given early this morning outside the court by attorney Frederico Miguel Alves, who represents two defendants, ten of the 17 detained were released after being heard on Thursday, with one GNR officer, one PSP officer, and five civilians remaining detained, for whom the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested preventive detention.
The ten people released, for whom non-custodial coercive measures were requested by the Public Prosecutor, include nine GNR military officers and one civilian.
A police source stated that the criminal organization dismantled in Tuesday’s operation by the Judicial Police (PJ) controlled about 500 foreign workers, though not all are considered victims of trafficking.
The 10 detained GNR military officers belonged, at the time of the alleged crimes, to the Beja Territorial Command of the GNR, while the PSP officer, from the Beja District Command of the Police, has been on sick leave since September 2024, it was revealed on Tuesday.
Regarding the six civilians, a police source specified that four are Portuguese and two are foreign nationals, “all members of the criminal organization.”
“The two foreign nationals are Indian and recruited victims of the same origin, also coercing and threatening them,” the same source added.
Among the Portuguese, it continued, is “the leader” of the network, who was “arrested on the public road in Beja at 5:00 AM on Tuesday,” while the others acted as “his lieutenants.”
The Public Prosecutor suspects that security forces personnel controlled and monitored the foreign workers “in exchange for economic compensation” and threatened them, “making it clear that complaining to the authorities would not be a viable option for responding to the abuses they suffered.”
The facts under investigation, according to the PJ and the Public Prosecutor, could constitute crimes of aiding illegal immigration, human trafficking, active and passive corruption, abuse of power, falsification, tax fraud, and money laundering.
