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At a press conference, the president of the Union for the Investigation and Inspection of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SCIF / SEF), Acácio Pereira, said that he intended to “make it clear, very clear, that the sinister episode that caused the death of a citizen [ucraniano] at Lisbon airport – as well as other cases of abuse of power that may have existed – are, in any case, small exceptions in the overall work of SEF and its inspectors ”.
“Saying this is not to minimize or detract from what happened! “Acácio Pereira emphasized, adding:” On the contrary! We are reaffirming here, face to face, that it is serious and that it cannot happen again! “
In his words, what the SEF inspectors union is saying and guaranteeing to the Portuguese “is that it is not a systemic problem, to use the expression of the President of the Republic, but isolated cases!”
“Faced with these isolated cases, the fundamental thing is that the National Directorate [do SEF] Promote the necessary actions so that identical events never occur again ”, he stressed.
According to Acácio Pereira, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, when speaking of the SEF, its restructuring and the possible existence of a systemic problem in that criminal police force “went beyond its powers”, justifying that it could have been because electoral issue, but that the SEF and its inspectors deserve respect. “We must not forget that the candidate Marcelo and the president are still the same person.”
Insisting that the case of the Ukrainian assassinated in the Lisbon airport facilities in March was an isolated case in the immensity of millions of efforts that SEF carries out annually, the The union president stressed that “problems are not solved with changes of minister, but with changes of attitude.”
Acácio Pereira was referring to requests from opposition political parties for the minister under the tutelage of the SEF, Eduardo Cabrita, to resign.
“It is not considered to create instability in a security service, it is not reasonable”, Acácio Pereira said, when asked if Minister Eduardo Cabrita should be removed from the post of Minister of Internal Administration.
The union leader revealed that he had not had any contact recently with the minister and said he was completely unaware of the content of the alleged restructuring plan or eventual extinction of the SEF, strongly criticizing that this last option could be taken by the country’s political and legislative power .
In his opinion, issues such as the restructuring of the SEF should be considered carefully, because “haste is a bad advisor” on such delicate and “important” matters.
Still on the death of the Ukrainian Ihor Homeniuk and the subsequent requests for dismissal from the Minister of the Interior, the union leader considered that the tragic incident that occurred at the Lisbon airport “became a political case”, when answering whether this question is also being used as a “political weapon,” according to the interests of the parties.
Speaking about the future of the SEF, Acácio Pereira stressed that what is “essential” is that the Government provide the SEF with the necessary means to continue with its mission and revert the “trajectory of deterioration of working conditions” that “has marked “. this criminal police force in recent years.
Addressing directly to the deputies, prime minister, ministers and the President of the Republic, Acácio Pereira defended that the SEF should be endowed, the SEF should be reorganized “, but not to end the SEF”, “nor to bring powers” to this service. which in 2019 attended to more than 20 million people and attended to more than 600 thousand cases of foreign citizens, in an “unbearable work” for any other criminal police force.
Thus, in the opinion of the union leader, placing the competences of the SEF in other policemen – “who have neither the vocation of the SEF, nor the preparation of the SEF, nor the experience of the SEF, nor the competences of the SEF – is to put it had been a good service and very complicated for other forces and security services “.
In this regard, he also stated: “There is no other police, with the exception perhaps of the Judicial Police, that has such good scrolls as the SEF in terms of human rights and in terms of the fight against racism and xenophobia.”
For all these reasons, Acácio Pereira argued that “to mutilate the SEF, break the SEF, destroy the SEF, is to destroy the only Portuguese police that is the legitimate daughter of democracy,” as it only appeared after April 25, 1974.
That is what the deputies have to take into account. That is what the government has to take into account. That is what the President of the Republic has to take into account. Certainly there are problems in the SEF that must be solved, but it is not spoiling or destroying the best that was built in Portugal in terms of security after April 25 that will solve everything, “he concluded.
The SEF made headlines when, on March 12, the Ukrainian citizen Ihor Homeniuk died at the facilities of the Aliens and Borders Service at Lisbon airport.
It is said that the citizen was the victim of the crime of homicide by three SEF inspectors, already charged by the Public Ministry, with the alleged complicity of 12 other inspectors. The trial of this case will begin on January 20.
Nine months after the alleged assassination, SEF director Cristina Gatões resigned last week after some opposition parties demanded political consequences for this case. Cristina Gatões had said in November that the Ukrainian’s death was the result of “an obvious situation of torture.”
