PJ's Unidade Nacional Contraterrorismo Sweeps Addresses in Almada Tied to the Coletivo pela Libertação da Palestina — Suspicions Stack Criminal Association, Incitement to Crime, Apology of Crime, Qualified Damage and Offence to a Legal Person

The Polícia Judiciária's Unidade Nacional Contraterrorismo (PJ, UNCT — National Counter-Terrorism Unit of the Judicial Police) executed search warrants in Almada this week against members of the Coletivo pela Libertação da Palestina (Collective for the Liberation of Palestine), a pro-Palestinian activist group that has organised demonstrations in the Lisbon area since late 2023. The operation, supervised by Almada's Departamento de Investigação Criminal (DIAP, Department of Criminal Investigation), was reported by Portuguese media on Friday.

The PJ statement frames the inquiry around a stack of five suspected crimes: associação criminosa (criminal association), incitamento ao crime (incitement to crime), apologia pública de crime (public apology of crime), dano qualificado (qualified damage) and ofensa a pessoa coletiva (offence to a legal person). Whether anyone has been formally detained as a constituído arguido (formally charged suspect) was not disclosed in the PJ's note to the press.

What was seized was described in general terms by the targeted activists rather than by the PJ. The collective, in a statement issued after the operation, said agents 'apreenderam vários objectos pessoais' (seized various personal objects) and characterised the searches as an act of state repression directed at solidarity with the Palestinian cause. The group connected the Almada operation to what it described as a broader European pattern of pressure on anti-Zionist activism since October 2023, when the present escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict began.

'A solidariedade com todas as pessoas perseguidas por defender a liberdade do povo palestiniano' (Solidarity with all persons persecuted for defending the freedom of the Palestinian people) was the closing line of the collective's published statement. The group has not contested that the PJ search warrants were judicially authorised; the political-public argument is over the proportionality of routing a Palestinian-solidarity organising group into the Unidade Nacional Contraterrorismo's investigative pipeline rather than through ordinary public-order or property-damage channels.

The specific incident or set of incidents that triggered the inquiry has not been disclosed by either the PJ or the Almada DIAP. The 'dano qualificado' (qualified damage) and 'ofensa a pessoa coletiva' (offence to a legal person) charges in the suspicions list typically attach in Portuguese practice to property-damage actions targeting an identifiable institution — embassies, consulates, foreign-state representations, or corporate offices linked to a contested commercial interest. The 'apologia pública de crime' charge — a Penal Code offence that criminalises publicly defending past or planned criminal acts — usually points to written or recorded statements that prosecutors believe cross the line from political expression into endorsement of specific unlawful conduct.

The Unidade Nacional Contraterrorismo, the PJ unit handling the operation, is the same arm that has been working a separate, unrelated terrorist-association investigation against members of the Movimento Armilar Lusitano announced earlier this month at the DCIAP (Departamento Central de Investigação e Ação Penal, Central Investigation and Prosecution Department) level. The unit's investigative scope spans both ideological extremes of the political spectrum, and the Almada inquiry — directed at a left-aligned solidarity group — runs in parallel with the right-wing case rather than as part of the same procedural file.

Operationally, the next visible procedural step would be the constituição como arguido (formal charging) of any individuals the prosecutors decide to bring inside the criminal procedure, plus any judicial decisions on coercion measures the Ministério Público (Public Prosecution Service) may request. No date has been set publicly for either. The collective said it intends to organise a public response in the coming days.