“We are currently at 88 arrests, all for arson, which is our legal responsibility. Of these 88 arrests, we have 57 individuals with preventive detention measures, which is a significant number, around 65%,” said Avelino Lima, national head of the Permanent Monitoring and Support Office (GPAA) for forest fires at the PJ, to journalists.
“It’s a record in our entire history,” he added, noting that this year the number of ignitions was lower than in previous years.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference “Forest Fires, Knowledge for Combat,” part of the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Polícia Judiciária and taking place today in Coimbra, the director of the PJ Central Directorate emphasized that the available data so far demonstrates the investigative work that has been carried out in collaboration with other entities, particularly with the GNR.
On the other hand, the number of working groups under the PJ’s jurisdiction, which increased from two to five, “helps us to produce more conclusive evidence, more demonstrative of the responsibility of the perpetrator [of forest fires],” he explained.
“And the judicial authority, as is obvious, with more fortified evidence, has no difficulty—considering the type of crime, the type of danger posed, the damages to the community—in placing these individuals in preventive detention and a few, some, under house arrest,” emphasized Avelino Lima.
The head of the GPAA also highlighted another record, which is the number of women detained (18 out of 88) for the crime of forest arson, as well as a set of individuals “quite senior, with quite advanced ages and for unequivocal willful actions.”
