Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), annulled a decision by the Justice of Rio de Janeiro that had rejected a criminal complaint filed by PSOL against councilor Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicanos-RJ) for defamation. Mendes determined that a new trial be held.
The criminal complaint was motivated by a post on Twitter made by the councilor, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who associated PSOL and federal deputy Jean Wyllys with the knife attack suffered by Jair Bolsonaro, during the presidential campaign in September 2018, in Juiz de Fora (MG). The Second Criminal Appeal Panel of the state court understood that the post by Councilman Carlos Bolsonaro did not constitute a crime of defamation, as there was no specific fact.
By accepting PSOL’s appeal, Minister Gilmar Mendes determined that a new decision be issued, as the Justice of Rio de Janeiro was based on only one tweet, while the post had three messages. For the minister, when analyzing all the content, it is evident that councilor Carlos Bolsonaro tried to link the party and the federal deputy to the attack, based on false news.
“Examining the entire context already explained and, in particular, the entire content of all the messages published on Twitter, it is clear that there is a certain and determined event in time, and it is possible to infer that, in principle, the manifestation of the defendant would have extrapolated mere criticism, being able to characterize a crime of defamation”, says Mendes, in the decision.
Gilmar Mendes determined that a new trial be carried out, since there was an omission on the part of the State Justice in disregarding the published full content. “I understand that there was a frontal violation of the duty to state reasons for judicial decisions, provided for in Art. 93, X, of the Constitution of the Republic”, he said.
