Suspect confesses to assault on MAI office

The suspect of robbing the general secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs confessed this Thursday, in the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, to the acts described in the indictment, but claimed that he “did not know” that the building belonged to the Portuguese Republic. The Public Prosecutor requested that he be sentenced to effective punishment for two crimes of qualified theft.

In the first session of the trial, the man said that he used cocaine and lived on the streets, after having left two associations where he slept after having his belongings stolen.

The defendant reports that, after having worked in construction, he found himself in a socially vulnerable situation and expressed “sincere regret” for the robbery at the MAI general secretariat, stressing that he was unaware of the ownership of the building and adding that, “out of respect”, he would not have done it if he had known that the building belonged to the ministry. On the day of the robbery, on August 28, 2024, the man took advantage of the scaffolding installed in the building to carry out the theft.

He then broke a window in a meeting room, entered and took possession of property: a laptop belonging to the then Secretary General of Internal Administration, Marcelo Mendonça de Carvalho, another belonging to the Deputy Secretary General of Internal Administration, Teres Costa, and eight more computers.

In possession of the devices, the defendant went to Largo de São Domingos, in the parish of Arroios, where he sold the stolen goods.

In view of the defendant's confession, the prosecutor is requesting that he be sentenced to an effective sentence “for two crimes of qualified theft”, recalling previous convictions in France, where he had emigrated, “for crimes against property”. The prosecutor points out that “he was sentenced to effective prison sentences” and “has not reversed his path”.

The second crime of qualified theft of which he is accused concerns a robbery that occurred in July of the same year, in a Local Accommodation from where the defendant stole a microwave and other materials. The reading of the sentence was scheduled for June 30th.

The defendant, born in Covilhã, had been living in Portugal since February last year, when he returned from France, where he had emigrated at the age of 18. After several years working in maintenance, he was convicted in that country before coming to Lisbon.