Victim was frequently physically assaulted
PJ police have announced the arrest of a 30-year-old man who is suspected of having ‘enslaved’ another man in Albufeira last October.
The suspect is accused of crimes of “kidnapping, theft, assault and slavery,” the police force says.
He was arrested on Wednesday in the Lisbon area after having gone missing from his “area of residence” in October, when he started being “searched for as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes,” a police source told Lusa news agency.
The victim, 46, “was the target of labour exploitation,” says the police force, adding that the man was forced to work for months as a shepherd and guard an enclosed area without being given any basic living conditions.
PJ police say the man was basically a “slave who frequently was subjected to physical assaults.”
The investigation was launched after the victim “required hospital care,” which sounded the alarms and saw police authorities determining that it was the victim’s boss who was behind the “inhuman treatment” he was suffering.
The suspect was due to appear before a judge.
