PSP detains protesters who seized the NOVA Medical School in Lisbon

The protesters who seized the NOVA Medical School in Lisbon this Monday were detained by the PSP, the movement demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the use of fossil fuels in Portugal by 2030 said on Tuesday.

Katarina Bio, an adviser to the student movement End Genocide, End Fossils, told Lusa that protesters at the college had been demobilized, but protesters were planning to hold a protest at the PSP police station where five detained students were being held. transported.

According to the same source, after the activists were detained inside the college, protesters standing at the doors blocked two entrances to the building to prevent PSP vans from passing through.

Katarina Bio also reported that police opened the road on one side of the road and reported attacks with batons and the taking of a cellphone from a protester who was taking pictures.

The metropolitan command of the Lisbon PSP (Comtelis) confirmed to Lusa at 01:00 the fact of the detention of activists in the college, without specifying how many and how the operation took place, sending the information for later.

The movement announced in a statement on Monday the occupation of the faculty by students of the NOVA Medical School in a protest that also included students from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH) as well as Nova University of Lisbon, the target of the occupation over the past two weeks.

“During the day, police prevented protesters from entering the college. Some students managed to enter and barricaded themselves in the room, while some supported outside,” the statement explained the movement.

Images posted on the movement’s Telegram social media channel showed protesters barricaded in a room and displaying Palestinian flags and stripes on a balcony.

Later, the same channel published a video showing protesters on the ground blocking the passage of a PSP car.

Also according to the statement, the protesters demand that the college, in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip, “disclose and be transparent regarding all agreements between this institution and the institutions of the State of Israel, as well as the termination of all partnerships.” continues,” they emphasize in the statement.

Protesters also warn of “warnings from doctors and scientists, the increasing frequency and severity of climate disasters and the impact they will have on public health.”

The movement also called in its statement for participation on June 8 in a demonstration starting in Principe Real which, “in the context of the European elections taking place at that time, will also seek to demand an end to genocide in Palestine and an end to fossils in Portugal by 2030.”