The Brazilian couple Jefferson Tenório, 29 years old, and Luís Almeida, 30 years old, say they were attacked by security guards, in the early hours of May 22, at the Titanic Sur Mer bar, in Cais do Sodré, in Lisbon. They accuse officials of xenophobia and homophobia.
According to Jefferson, they went to the place to celebrate the visit of a family member and stayed until around 3 am. After leaving, he says he returned to the place to use the bathroom with his cousin.
After a while, Luís tried to return to the place looking for Jefferson, but he was prevented. He insisted, warning that there was a person inside. From that moment on, he began to be pushed by three security guards and when he questioned the motivation, he was punched in the face.
When trying to break up the fight, Jefferson and his family were also attacked.
“Disgusted with the aggressions that continued and trying to take the focus of the aggression on him, I threw a stone in front of the place, breaking a glass. At this moment, the focus of the attacks was on me”, explains Jefferson.
“Then a scene of horror began, in which I was drowned in the Tagus River, tortured and beaten with punches and kicks in the face and body, with them screaming that they were going to kill me, I ended up getting completely bloodied, the aggression only stopped when the police arrived,” he continues. A CNN he explained that his nose was broken into three pieces.
Luís said that “even though they were visibly attacked, covered in bruises, bleeding, the police did not take this into account, they only demanded our identification, with rudeness, and they did not identify the other aggressors, even though we pointed them out”.
“Jeferson underwent surgery, we are in recovery, and all of that was very traumatic for us. We didn’t expect to go through this, because we don’t see any reason why this happened. It is very revolting and we will go to the end after justice ”, he concluded.
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According to the defense of the Brazilians, the Portuguese authorities were called, but did not return. The Brazilian Consulate was also informed and offered a psychologist to deal with the case.
In an official note, the bar states that “it has already communicated the occurrence to the police and will make every effort to ensure that this type of situation, which we consider to be extremely serious, does not happen again, and also for the facts to come to light.” .
“Titanic has footage from the cameras inside the space and on the esplanade where these incidents took place and will do its part to find out who was responsible.” They conclude by stating that they condemn any and all forms of violence.
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*Published by Douglas Porto with information from Anne Barbosa and Matheus Meirelles
Source: CNN Brasil
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