Two Lisbon policemen charged with torturing migrants and vagrants

Two Lisbon police officers have been charged with torturing vagrants and migrants and then sharing images of their acts in an online chat with other officers, triggering a broader inquiry, Portuguese officials said on Friday.

The two officers in their 20s, who were arrested last July and remain in custody, are accused of torture, acts of cruelty and abuse of power, according to the indictment signed by Lisbon Prosecutor Felismina Franco last week.

One of them also faces charges of rape, robbery and forgery.

The document described one incident in which the policemen beat up a Moroccan immigrant inside a police station for several hours, making him kiss their boots as one shouted in English: "Welcome to Portugal!"

"The victims were systematically picked from among particularly vulnerable people, namely homeless, physically weak, economically challenged," the prosecutor wrote.

"This circumstance reveals acts of pure and gratuitous violence aimed at those who were unable to offer resistance."

The Interior Ministry told Reuters it "profoundly laments such behaviour and all actions that infringe upon citizen rights... which do not represent the general behaviour of police professionals".

The General Inspectorate has opened a separate inquiry to investigate other police officers, the ministry said.

The Portuguese branch of rights group Amnesty International, which said it had received information about more cases of torture, said the sharing of images and messages about their acts in chats and social media "shows an enormous sense of impunity" by the officers, although it welcomed the fact that the crimes had been denounced from within the law enforcement community.

It called for an external and independent police supervision agency to be set up and for more cameras to be installed at police stations, in cars and for officers to use body cams when interacting with people.