The twins allegedly beat 15-year-old Rúben Cavaco senseless and left him with serious injuries following a night out in Ponte de Sor (Portalegre) last Wednesday.
Giving their version of events in an exclusive interview with broadcaster SIC, the boys admitted being involved in a brawl, but denied running the teen over.
They said they are collaborating with police without invoking diplomatic immunity.
“I would not say we are above the law, because we respect all police procedures, although we did not have to do, we could have invoked diplomatic immunity and would not have to answer any interrogation or investigation” one of the brothers said during the interview.
The siblings added they hope “the situation is resolved” and said they want “to see Rúben recover.”
“Until the situation is resolved we won’t be going anywhere”, they stressed.
Twins Haider and Ridha, one of whom is at piloting school in Ponte do Sor, are reportedly holders of diplomatic passports and are entitled to diplomatic immunity. They were detained by PJ police following the incident and later released.
Newspaper Diário de Notícias reports that as the boys benefit from diplomatic immunity – which is extendable to all members of the Ambassador’s family – they would not face trial as defendants.
They are suspected of having attacked the younger boy on a main avenue in Ponte de Sor after a brawl involving more people broke out outside an establishment earlier that night.
Rúben Cavaco was found unconscious by binmen and was flown by helicopter to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital. On Tuesday afternoon he was discharged from the Intensive Care ward, where he had been kept in an induced coma for almost a week.
A statement issued by the Iraqi Embassy in Portugal on Tuesday said the twins had first been set upon by half a dozen of the other teen’s friends, and “were attacked and insulted for being Arab”.
It added they reacted in self-defence after being “severely beaten.”
“The sons of Iraq’s ambassador to Portugal were severely beaten by six people who hit them and insulted them for being Arabs and Muslims,” the statement read in Arabic, published on the Iraqi embassy’s website on the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official page.
It elaborated that the twins returned to the scene of the brawl, where another clash broke out, and then they went to the local police station to report the incident.
The Iraqi Ministry for Foreign Affairs confirmed it has “launched an investigation to determine the details of this incident” while at the same time reiterating its willingness to “maintain the efficiency of their diplomatic missions” with all states, including Portugal.
Its Portuguese counterpart has said it has not yet received any request from judicial authorities relating to the incident involving the Iraqi Ambassador’s sons in Ponte de Sor, while the Public Prosecutor has reportedly launched an inquiry, which is under investigation.
Portugal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, said on SIC’s nightly news programme that he hopes the Iraqi authorities will take a “concrete position” on the Ponte de Sor case, and that he has been assured by the Iraqi government that it promises to clarify the incident.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, national broadcaster RTP reported that Iraqi Ambassador to Portugal, Saad Mohammed Ridha had been “urgently” summoned to Baghdad regarding the case. The diplomat is also said to have brought charges against the six youths who allegedly set about his sons.
According to newspaper Correio da Manhã, Rúben Cavaco is among them.
The Attorney-General’s office has reportedly requested that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks Baghdad to lift the twins’ diplomatic immunity.