The Home Secretary has ordered an urgent investigation following news that climate activists were forced to strip for searches and spent more than 10 hours in handcuffs.
“The Minister of Internal Affairs, by his order, decided to launch an urgent investigation by the IGAI. [Inspeção Geral da Administração Interna]”, a ministry source told Lusa regarding the news published in News Diary under the headline “PSP forces climate activists to strip naked during search.”
According to the newspaper, 11 activists – six women and five men – were detained on December 14 during a protest blocking the Duarte Pacheco Viaduct in Lisbon, with the women forced to strip completely for a search.
The searches, one activist said, were carried out only on women and twice – first at the Calvario police station in Alcantara, and then at the Lisbon Metropolitan Command (COMETLIS) in Moscavida.
According to the same source, 11 detainees were also handcuffed for more than 10 hours.
This was not the first time the PSP had been the subject of such complaints: in January 2023, the Home Office reprimanded an agent who had been involved in a climate activist case in 2021.
The case, which occurred in May 2021 in connection with another protest that blocked the Rotunda of Lisbon Airport, led to the arrest of 26 people, and, according to the activist cited by the newspaper, only 19 women were forced to take off their clothes.
The complaint filed then led to a complaint to the Department of Justice, which the Attorney General’s Office says is still under investigation, as well as an IGAI investigation.
The Inspector General of Internal Affairs concluded that the search exceeded “the criteria of adequacy, proportionality and necessity in relation to what was sought in the particular case and the purpose pursued, which would be fully achieved by using a search by palpation above clothing,” and in January last year the agent who ordered the activists to take off their clothes was reprimanded.
This Sunday’s news also states that one of the activists, who is transgender but listed as male on his citizenship card, also found himself forced to undress and was questioned by the PSP about his sexual orientation.
The police contacted by JN initially assured that the searches were carried out with respect for the dignity of the detainees, but later admitted that “other search procedures were adopted”, without denying the existence of “naked” searches.
The newspaper recalls that in June 2021, according to the weekly Expresso, the police classified as “absurd” the activists’ report that they were ordered to undress, and that this only concerned female activists.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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