“Politics is done in Parliament, not with sticks on the street”

O lawyer of seven of the detainees, on the weekend, in Porto, during protests for the right to housing, praised the decision of the Administrative Court of Lisbon known on Monday, November 2, in which it gives reason to camp.

“The way in which the police acted, at the command of the MAI and the Prime Minister, was illegal,” Ricardo Salazar said, at the door of the Court of Small Criminal Instance of Porto, where the detainees appeared today in court, recalling that, thus, according to the court’s order, “there is no disobedience.”.

“ The order is illegitimate, so the right to say no and the right to resist is a right that every Portuguese citizen has. The authority has to be respected when acting within the law, this was nothing within the law ", shot, reminding still others camped, already in the Government of Luís Montenegro, who had a reaction by the authorities completely different.

The lawyer thus expects, before the order of the administrative court, that today’s proceedings be dismissed, as well as “all the others” and that there will be “an apology” to the protesters.

“ If you are asking me if there will be compensation proceedings, first the Justice, (...) we will think about that later. Now, the important thing is that these people are acquitted because they did not commit any crime,” he said.

“ We have to change the way we do politics because politics is done in Parliament, it is not done through sticks in the street”, said Ricardo Salazar, stressing that if there is a death in demonstrations for housing, the Prime Minister will blame it.

“ And when there is a dead person, the fault of this dead and the blood on the street will be Louis Montenegro and it will be all those people who thought this was normal ", said.

It is recalled that, according to the Public and SIC News, the Lisbon Administrative Court gave reason to protesters for the right to housing. In addition to the use of tents not being considered outside the law, the court left warnings to the PSP about their way of acting in protests, which have made dozens of wounded and detained.

13 held during the weekend

The 13 people arrested on Sunday, following the police intervention to demobilize the camps in Lisbon and Porto by the right to housing, were notified to attend court today.

Police operations took place simultaneously on Sunday morning when the PSP dispersed people, removed the tents and emptied the public space in Praça D. João I, in Porto, and in Rossio, in Lisbon.

In Porto, protesters arrested by the PSP in Praça D. João I have been at the Court of Small Criminal Instance of Porto since 10 a.m. and in Lisbon will have to be at 2:00 p.m. at the Campus of Justice.

Lawyer Ricardo Sá Fernandes, one of the interlocutors in the defense of demonstrators in Lisbon, announced that he will make a criminal complaint against the Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, and against the national director of PSP, Pedro Moura, contesting the legality and the use of force in police action.

Police actions resulted in episodes of tension and confrontation, with the arrest of seven protesters in Porto and six in Lisbon, as well as injuries by 13 PSP agents and several protesters.

In Lisbon, just minutes after the start of the police load of the PSP, with petards and batonadas, the square D. Pedro V was empty. The protesters were kicked out by the various accesses to Rossio.

In Porto, PSP destroyed the camp set up in square D. João I. The protesters resisted, shouting that their action was peaceful as the police force advanced, using batons and dogs, pushing them to the street Dr. Magellan Lemos.

According to the INEM, 25 people were assisted following the police load in camped by the right to housing in both cities.