The Public Ministry (MP) accused members of the Movimento Armilar Lusitano (MAL) of being part of a neo-Nazi terrorist organizationthis Thursday the Now. The indictment, brought by the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), covers nine defendants, four of them in pre-trial detention, and charges them with the crime of terrorist organization. According to the dispatch, the group planned to attack the Lisbon apartment of the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.
EVIL was dismantled in June last year by the National Counter-Terrorism Unit (UNCT) of the Judicial Police, in an operation that led to the arrest of the main perpetrators. Among those detained is Bruno Gonçalves, a PSP agent who served in the Lisbon Municipal Police, identified by the investigation as one of the movement’s top figures and as responsible for recruiting new elements.
The MP says that the neo-Nazi group was preparing for an attack on Luís Montenegro’s apartment, in Lisbon, at the beginning of last year. Due to his role in the Municipal Police, Bruno Gonçalves may have had access to a document with the prime minister’s address, sharing it with other members before noticing that the residence was subject to permanent surveillance by the PSP’s personal security body. The defendant even had access to the identification of one of the agents responsible for this protection.
The conversation between the defendants ruled out the possibility of a kidnapping, but it was suggested that a grenade should be thrown into the apartment.
DCIAP’s investigation reconstructed the group’s architecture, from leadership to recruitment methods, which included interviews and questionnaires for candidates, says the Morning Mail. The movement was dedicated to manufacturing and experimenting with weapons produced using 3D printers, including models such as the FGC9, with video recordings of members of the group testing them. Explosives, especially grenades, were also seized.
For the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants acted with the aim of constituting a nationalist and far-right political movementanti-immigration, supported by an armed militia. The group defended the “recourse to ideologically motivated violence” to achieve political ends, in the name of combating immigration that they considered to be uncontrolled and a threat to Portugal. On the closed platforms they used, groups on Signal and Telegram, the leaders openly defended extremist ideas, including neo-Nazi ideology.
PJ arrived at this group through analysis of social networks and other activities onlinedetecting “indicators of extremist demonstrations” that encouraged “discrimination, hatred and violence against immigrants and refugees”.
