An unemployed local man in his sixties was arrested on Saturday for slandering the police and disobeying police orders, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Choi Iok Kin said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
The suspect surnamed Ng is in his sixties.
According to Choi, a local man was disturbing two PSP officers when they were handling a car accident in the junction of Rua de Francisco Xavier Pereira and Travessa dos Bombeiros on Saturday. The man stood in the middle of the road obstructing other vehicles trying to pass. The man then accused one the policemen, who is a senior officer, of unfair law enforcement in handling a traffic accident last June, and continued to hinder the officer from performing his duties. The officer told the man that he could lodge a complaint with the Public Security Police if he had any grievance, but the man ignored him and refused to leave.
When the senior police officer was about to leave after handling the traffic accident, the man blocked him from leaving the place. The other PSP officer at the scene gestured in an attempt to stop the man, during which he slightly touched the man. The man then suddenly fell to the ground and sat down on the road after which he called the police saying that he had been pushed to the ground by the police officer and required an ambulance, Choi said.
According to Choi, the senior officer told the other officer to deal with the traffic accident in order to avoid any further dispute. When the senior officer got on his motorcycle and was about the leave the scene, the man suddenly lay down on the road, blocking traffic again. The man was later taken to the public Conde de S. Januário Hospital Centre for out-patient treatment and the doctor assessed that the man had mild pain in the sacrum.
Choi said after the man was discharged from the hospital, PSP officers took him to a police station for questioning. The man refused to cooperate with the police and said that he was unwell, and he called himself an ambulance and was taken to hospital again. Choi said the man intended to leave while waiting in the hospital and the officers told him not to leave as he was involved in a suspected criminal case, otherwise he would commit the crime of “disobeying a police order”. However, the man refused to cooperate with the officers and ran away. The officers chased after and stopped him, and finally subdued him “with appropriate force,” Choi said.
According to Choi, PSP officers scrutinised CCTV footage and confirmed that Ng fell down without being pushed by the officer. Ng subsequently called the police twice falsely accusing the senior police officer of having pushed him to the ground. After checking Ng’s police record, the Public Security Police confirmed that Ng had been involved in a traffic accident last June and was being sued by the senior police officer so he accused the officer of unfair law enforcement and repeatedly lodged complaints with the Public Security Police.
Ng was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Monday, facing a raft of charges such as slander, false accusation, intent to mislead and failure to comply with police orders, according to Choi.
