On Monday, the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) accused two Iraqis who allegedly belonged to the jihadist movement Daesh of participating in a terrorist organization and of war crimes against people.
In a note published on the DCIAP website, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) states that for the first time in Portugal, charges have been filed for war crimes against people.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Central Investigation and Criminal Affairs Department has charged two accused of Iraqi nationality with committing crimes for membership of a terrorist organization, war crimes against people and, as for one accused, also of a crime of resistance and coercion. on an employee,” the DCIAP states.
According to the DCIAP, the investigation examined the activities of the accused as members of the self-declared Islamic State, in the Al Hisbah (Religious Police) and Al Amniyah (Intelligence Services) divisions during the occupation of Iraq by that terrorist organization, between 2014 and 2016. .
The two Iraqis, who had been in Portugal since March 2017, have been in protective custody since September last year, when they were detained by the judicial police.
Assisted by the National Counterterrorism Unit of the Judicial Police, the MP points out that the investigation was also conducted for the first time in close collaboration with UNITAD (UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL).
UNITAD is an independent and impartial United Nations investigative team mandated by the Security Council to advance accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State, the MP said.
The DCIAP also indicates that the cooperation of the Iraqi authorities has also been obtained.
According to the MP, the investigation was also conducted in collaboration with the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States of America, with EUROPOL and with the military operation Operation Gallant Phoenix – The Global Coalition Against Da’esh.
At the time of the arrest in the Greater Lisbon area, a PJ source told Lusa that the two men, aged 32 and 34, had been under surveillance by judicial police since 2017.
The two Iraqi brothers had been in Portugal since 2017 under the European Union’s Refugee Relocation Program and one of them worked at the Mezze restaurant in Arroios, Lisbon, and was one of the staff members who attended the visit that the Prime Minister, António Costa , and the former president of the republic, Jorge Sampaio, held the restaurant recognized for the integration of refugees in January 2018.
The restaurant was also visited in June of the same year by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Source: DN
