Lisbon, April 17, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese public security police operation in Lisbon's Martim Moniz district in December complied with all the legal criteria, concluded the General Inspection of Internal Administration (IGAI), which has shelved the investigation, the Diário de Notícias newspaper reveals on Thursday. The IGAI indicates that the public security police (PSP)'s special crime prevention operation, which was marked by the image of dozens of immigrants leaning against a wall while waiting to be frisked by the police, was justified by the "constraints and objective", writes the newspaper. In response to the newspaper, the body that oversees police activities explains that the administrative investigation had two objectives: to find out "in what context the Special Criminal Prevention Operation (...) in Rua do Benformoso, Lisbon, was planned and carried out; and, specifically, the reasons behind the searches carried out on citizens present at the scene". The investigation was shelved because the IGAI concluded that the operation, which took place on 19 December, complied with "general and specific legal precepts". In its response to the newspaper, the IGAI also confirmed that, after analysing the information sent by the PSP, it concluded that "the action of prohibiting access to Rua do Benformoso, the need to identify and search the people present, as well as the way in which they were immobilised", were justified by the "conditions and objective of the special crime prevention operation". The IGAI added that there was no excess in the use of resources. The operation provoked considerable controversy when an image was released in which dozens of people, most of them foreigners, who are a large community in that part of the city, were leaning against a wall with their hands up while waiting to be frisked, and comments were made at the time about the police behaviour. Two people were arrested and almost €4,000 in cash seized, as well as batons, documents, a dangerous weapon, a mobile phone and a hundred counterfeit items. SO/AYLS // AYLS Lusa