Protesters held in Porto pronounce on suspension

Asix people arrested in Porto, in the early hours of October 25, for protesting for the right to housing, are heard today by the prosecutor to pronounce on the provisional suspension of the process that, if they refuse, will proceed for trial.

The hearing of the detainees is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. at the Local Criminal Court in Porto.

The provisional suspension of the proceedings is an alternative to the trial, i.e., instead of the prosecution being dismissed, the case is suspended for a certain period while the defendant complies with certain obligations or rules of conduct.

The six protesters were arrested in the early hours of October 25, after police intervention in the camp of Porto, in square D. João I, for a crime of disobedience.

On 26 October, the detainees were identified in the Local Court of Small Crime in Porto, and the trial was scheduled for 13 November.

However, despite the appointment of that date, the detainees will be heard today for a possible provisional suspension of proceedings, thus avoiding the going to trial.

At the time, and outside the courthouse, the protestors' lawyer, Ricardo Salazar, said that if there is a provisional suspension of proceedings, it is not because people are guilty, but because there are people who need to have a clean record in order to have access to a profession.

“ But, I ask you: which one of you, knowing that you are making a fair fight, choose the easiest way out and tacitly take the blame to protect yourself in exchange for not having a trial and a conviction?”, asked Ricardo Salazar.

Ricardo Salazar considered that the process is “easyly filed”, provided there is courage on the part of the prosecutor.

The housing camps, a movement that began in Porto on October 10, mark on Tuesday a month, during which they managed to force a public debate on the crisis in the country with social and political consequences.

The protesters demand the reversal of the new rental law, the end of demolitions and evictions without an alternative housing, a stop to the purchase of housing by real estate funds, the increase in public housing, the recovery of vacant buildings for housing purposes and ceilings “truely accessible” to income.

On November 2, the Public Prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court (TC) to assess whether the August 1974 standard establishing that a demonstration has the time limit at 00:30 is unconstitutional, according to a request to which Lusa then had access.

The appeal was mandatory after, on the eve, the Lisbon Administrative Court considered that, in the light of the 1976 Constitution, the limit of 00:30 for demonstrations is not “absolute and automatic”, authorizing the protester who brought the action against the State, Renata Cambra, to remain in Rossio, in Lisbon, with a tent, including at dawn, until 24 November 2026, date of the final vote of the State Budget for 2027 in the Assembly of the Republic.

This is the norm that, until 1 November, was invoked by the PSP to disperse at dawn on several occasions, using batonadas and dogs, those camped by the right to housing that have occurred last month in the square D. João I, in Porto, and in the square D. Pedro IV (Rossio), in Lisbon.