In Portugal, an additional 15 police officers have been arrested on suspicion of torturing and abusing vulnerable people, including migrants. The latest round of arrests was announced on Tuesday (May 5) in a widening investigation into police officers suspected of "aggravated torture, rape, abuse of power and aggravated assault."
A statement released by Portuguese police on Tuesday (May 5) confirmed that they are in the middle of investigating a total of 24 police officers for "alleged acts of aggravated torture, rape, abuse of power and aggravated assault," reported the European news site Euronews.
The Portuguese news site Veja added that the case had been dubbed the "rat squad" case. Crimes allegedly occurred between 2024 and 2025.
On Tuesday, investigators conducted 30 searches, including in two police stations in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, where the alleged abuse is believed to have taken place.
Most of the victims, according to reports in the Portuguese press, were undocumented migrants, homeless people or drug users. One Portuguese newspaper, Correio da Manha, reported that in total the investigation might eventually involve up to 70 officers from various police stations, some even with the rank of chief.
Read AlsoPortugal: Government prepared to pay millions to keep asylum seekers out
Alleged roles and involvement under investigation
The news agency Reuters added that police said the detentions also included one civilian, but would not say if those being held are suspected of having carried out torture themselves, or for having failed to report alleged abuse they either witnessed in person, or via videos shared.
Portugal’s Minister of Internal Administration, Luis Neves, told Veja that those arrested are serving police officers who "may have interacted in some way with deviant behavior."
This is not the first time that the Portuguese police and authorities have been investigated for alleged abuse and exploitation of migrants and vulnerable people. In November last year, a series of investigations resulted in 17 arrests, including 11 police officers.
In that case, ten officers from the National Guard (GNR) and one officer from the municipal police force (PSP) were arrested on charges of human trafficking and exploitation of migrants. The officers were accused of being part of a ‘mafia-like’ organization, reported the Spanish news agency EFE at the time.
Seven police officers were also remanded in custody on similar charges to this week's case in March, added Euronews. Arrests in this current case appear to have begun in January this year, when it was reported that two police officers in Lisbon were arrested and charged with torturing migrants and vagrants. The Portuguese news agency Lusa had already reported similar allegations against a number of officers in 2022.
Read AlsoPortugal: Frontex to reinforce border patrols at airports from January 2026
'Zero-tolerance'
Portuguese police director Luis Carrilho told Euronews: "We enforce a zero-tolerance policy towards cases of misconduct," and promised that “citizens can continue to have confidence in the police,” reported Euronews.
On March 4, when the Public Security Police (PSP)officers were taken into custody, a court justified their pre-trial detention citing "the danger of continued criminal activity as well as serious disturbance to public order and the risk of evidence tampering."
The PSP said that it "strongly repudiates any behavior that constitutes a flagrant violation of these principles," and stressed to journalists that it had reported the facts of the case itself to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors told Reuters news agency that some of the abuse had been reported within the police itself. Prosecutors had also received testimony from alleged victims. However, prosecutors believe that many police officers may have stayed silent, even if they knew of what might have been going on.
Read AlsoPortugal tightens citizenship criteria in new law
'Enormous sense of impunity'
The human rights group Amnesty said it welcomed the investigation but has long expressed concerns about allegations of police brutality in Portugal. They added that in their view, based on chats and messages exchanged between the suspects and uncovered as part of the investigation, there was an "enormous sense of impunity" among some of the officers alleged to be involved.
According to Carrilho, PSP has around 20,000 men and women working for it, reported Veja. Only one of those arrested has actually been accused of 29 different crimes, including torture and rape. Other PSP officers are being heard as witnesses during the investigation, although most of them have so far denied seeing any form of aggression.
Veja reported however that the testimonies given to the investigating judge are "inconsistent with evidence obtained during the investigations," which include videos on cell phones and messages in a WhatsApp group that had around 70 members, including police officers. These chats "detail several episodes of violence, including the use of pepper spray and punches with boxing gloves," reported Veja.
The Portuguese news site Expresso reported at the end of April that two police officers already arrested earlier and due to stand trial have been accused of dozens of crimes of abuse of power, torture and in one case rape. Although they deny all charges against them, journalists from the newspaper who talked to one of the judges in the case reported that Judge Carla Susana Marques had dismissed the officers’ version of events and thinks there is a "serious probability" that the officers could be convicted in court.
Today (May 6), the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias commented that the allegations in this case represented a "complete systemic failure" of the PSP in Portugal. Whatever the eventual outcome, the newspaper said it feared that those involved could be the "most dangerous gang operating in the capital [Lisbon]" precisely because they were alleged to be committing those crimes within the official system, not outside it.
With Reuters, Lusa, EFE