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The Central Criminal Court of Lisbon today begins the trial of eight Portuguese Jiadistas, for the practice, in co-authorship, of three crimes: adhesion and support to terrorist organizations; international terrorism (related to recruitment for terrorist organizations); and financing of terrorism.
Only two of the defendants should sit in the dock: Cassimo Turé, who has been in London; and Rómulo Costa, who is pre-trial incarcerated in Monsanto’s high-security prison. This individual, in his 40s and brother of two other defendants, with whom he lived in the Massamá area (Sintra), was the only one who requested the investigation of the case, to challenge the accusation and avoid the trial. However, all his arguments were rejected by the main judge, Carlos Alexandre.
Of the six remaining defendants, Nero Saraiva, identified as the most dangerous of all, has been in custody in Syria for about a year, under the surveillance of Kurdish forces. The other five – Sadjo Turé, Edgar Costa, Celso Costa, Fábio Poças, Sandro Marques – their whereabouts are unknown, and there is even doubt whether they survived the war in Syria, where the Islamic State lost its last stronghold, already in the last year. In the absence of evidence of the death of these Portuguese terrorists, they are tried, in absentia, for the crimes for which they were accused and pronounced.
Rómulo Costa and Cassimo Turé, members of the jihadist cause that can be seen today at the Lisbon Justice Campus, are also the only defendants who, according to the prosecution, never wanted to go to Syria and participate directly in the war. However, the Public Ministry considers that both played very relevant roles, in terms of recruitment, financing, logistical support and travel of Portuguese and British citizens to Syria.
The investigation into this group of terrorists began at a time when the authorities became aware of Nero Saraiva’s involvement in the kidnapping of two photojournalists covering the Syrian war, the British John Cantlie and the Dutch Jeroen Oerlemans.
The evidence gathered, specifically through the interception of electronic communications, led the MP to conclude that the defendants acted out of “a deep religious political conviction, markedly Salafist-jihadist, of a violent nature.” Starting in 2011, in an organized manner and through a group they formed, the defendants joined different terrorist organizations with the same matrix, that is, ISIS and the Migrant Brigade, until they became members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
Boot camp instruction
According to the prosecution, between 2011 and 2012, four defendants were in training camps in Tanzania, before heading to Syria, via Sudan and Turkey. The accused Edgar Costa was an instructor there, a role that Fábio Poças would also assume, who will have instructed more than a thousand recruits.
Commanded terrorists
Nero Saraiva came to assume command roles in the Syrian war, but is said to have been captured by Kurdish forces, who hold him as a valuable asset. Nero, with the last known address in Massamá (Sintra), was one of the first Europeans to join the jihadist cause in Syria.
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