The public prosecutor has charged five youths of assaulting and attempting to kill three policemen, who were violently attacked by defendants with rocks, kicks and punches while they were undertaking security measures during a party in the town of Catujal, in Loures.

According to the indictment of the MP, which the agency Lusa had this Wednesday had access, the  violence occurred in the early hours of July 3 this year, in the parish of Unhos, during a party organized by the parish of St. Joseph of Nazaré, in which 200 people participated.

Police officers of the Public Security Police (PSP) were in uniform to “ensure the maintenance of security and public order,” the prosecution said, adding that the five defendants, aged between 19 and 25 years old, “were part of a group of at least 10 individuals”.

By 00:30, two of the young men approached the police “with a fixed and provocative stare” directed to one of the agents, with one of the defendants saying: “You’re looking at me for what, bófia … because are you looking at me like that?”, the accusation states.

At that time, defendants Bruno Miranda, Ercelino Varela, Diogo Henriques, Tiago Lopes and Tiago Simões, accompanied by the remaining individuals who were part of the group, whose identification was not verified, advanced towards the agent with the clear intention of assaulting him” , describes the MP.

From that moment, the indictment lists a series of assaults by the defendants, which included shoving, kicking and punching various parts of the body, especially in the head whilst some of the police agents were lying on the ground.

One of the defendants picked up a “large sidewalk stone” and hit one of the officers on the left side of the head.

At another point, the MP says that one of the elements that constituted the group “threw a stone from the pavement that hit” one of the police agents in the face, causing him to drop to the floor.

“All the defendants, in a communion of efforts and wills, making use of their numerical superiority, acted with the firm motivation to confront and to attack against the physical integrity and the life of the agents of authority who were there in the exercise of their functions police, “says the MP.

After the “violent assaults” the defendants and other members of the group fled, “going to different places”.

Two of the police officers were taken to the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, while the other was assisted by firefighters and was sent to Beatriz Angelo Hospital in Loures.

The indictment alleges that a civilian was also assaulted during the violence, and was taken that night to the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon.

One of the policemen, who remained 261 days of medical leave, suffered, among other injuries, head trauma, loss of consciousness, and nose fracture, having undergone a surgical intervention.