Earlier this week, Rádio Renascença reported a case of lynching at a school in Lisbon, allegedly motivated by racism and xenophobia, which is now known to have taken place in Amadora. A nine-year-old boy was allegedly assaulted at the beginning of the year by a group of five classmates, also minors, while another filmed the incident so that they could later share the images in WhatsApp groups.

The attack was reported by Ana Mansoa, director-general of the Centro Padre Alves Correia (CEPAC), which belongs to the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, a missionary congregation that works mainly in Africa.

According to the director, the boy was assaulted to such an extent that in addition to "bruises all over his body", he was left with "open wounds". Despite this, because he was "afraid", the family preferred not to file a complaint with the authorities or go to a hospital so that the child could be treated.

Two months after the attack, Ana Mansoa also told Renascença that the boy still wakes up at night with nightmares and is afraid to go to the new school to which he was transferred at the request of his family.

In the video released by the attackers, it is possible to hear, according to the director-general of CEPAC, the attackers insulting the child with phrases such as: "go back to your country, you're not like us", "you're not from here", "we don't want anything to do with you", among other things that Ana Mansoa preferred not to mention.

The seriousness of the case led it to gain national prominence, with the Government and the President of the Republic reacting, as well as other politicians, celebrities and thousands of anonymous people. But there is some contradictory information.

School unaware of "alleged incident"

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation said that the school where the aggression was reported is unaware of "the alleged incident" and that the only Nepalese students at the school are in secondary education, so "there is no record of any disciplinary occurrence", something that the Minister of Education reiterated this Thursday, adding that all cases of violence should be reported to the authorities.

"When the news was released, the ministry tried to find out more. The services went to the schools and, in fact, with the details that were described in the media, we have no identification of the case", said Fernando Alexandre.

In an initial reaction to the alleged lynching, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, stressed that situations like this are "always reprehensible", but that the case cannot be assessed "in a generic way", since this could lead to "committing injustices".

Information provided to the competent authorities

This Thursday, CEPAC sent a statement to Notícias ao Minuto in which it guarantees that it provided all the "precise information to ascertain the alleged facts" to the competent authorities and that it will not speak about the matter any further, since it believes that the exposure could further harm the child's well-being.

Meanwhile, the newspaper Público assures that the case has already been reported by the association to the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP), which will be responsible for following up on the situation. Notícias ao Minuto is trying to confirm this information with the Attorney General's Office (PGR).

Read Also: CEPAC guarantees that it has provided information on the lynching of a Nepalese boy (Portuguese version)