Most of the Supreme Court maintains compensation from Eduardo Bolsonaro to journalist
Most of the Supreme Court (STF) ministers voted to maintain the court decision that sentenced Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) to pay compensation of $ 35,000 for moral damages to journalist Patrícia Campos Campos Mello, from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
In May 2020 she was the target of sexual attacks by the parliamentarian. In a live broadcast over the internet, Eduardo stated that the journalist was trying to “make sex” to sources to get negative information about her father, then -president Jair Bolsonaro, among other offenses to the reporter’s work.
The vote of the Minister-Report Luis Roberto Barroso prevails. Without entering the merits of the case, he denied continuation of an appeal by Eduardo, understanding that the necessary requirements for the appeal to be accepted in the Supreme, such as the indication of some violation of the Constitution, were not met.
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“Indeed, to diverge from the conclusion of the court of origin about the configuration of unlawful act in the specific case, a new examination of the facts and evidence contained in the case, unfeasible action in this procedural phase,” wrote Barroso.
The case is tried in the virtual plenary, in which the ministers received a week to vote. The session ends at 11:59 pm this Friday (11). Until then, it is possible to change the vote, or that the judgment is interrupted by a request for view (more time of analysis) or prominent (referral to the physical plenary).
So far, the rapporteur followed Ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin, Cármen Lúcia, Dias Toffoli and Flávio Dino, forming the majority. Ministers Kássio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça diverged, who applied to the case the parliamentary immunity provided for in Article 53 of the Constitution, which protects congressmen from being prosecuted for their statements.
For Marques and Mendonça, Eduardo Bolsonaro’s statements were related to his parliamentary activity and were focused on “propagating to his electorate opinions and speech on the question investigated by the National Congress”, which is why he could not punish.
Mendonça stressed that, in his view, the speeches were uttered “in defense of the politician’s suitability whose reputation has considerable potential to reach his own public career and in response to the journalist because of a matter published in the electoral context.”
The minister also stressed that the statements were “folded by the defendant in journalistic and social network, in clear dispute of narratives on issues relevant to the applicant’s political group.”
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Today licensed by office and living in the United States, claiming to suffer persecution of the judiciary, Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) was sentenced in two instances by the São Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP), who dismissed the hypothesis of parliamentary immunity in the case and stipulated compensation of R $ 35 thousand to the journalist.
“In fact, the facts attributed to the author (Patrícia Campos Mello) are serious disagreement that offend personal and professional reputation, violating the right of personality,” says the judgment (collegiate decision) about the case. With the decision of the Supreme, the case must move res judicata, when the possibilities of appeal are exhausted and the penalty can be applied.
Journalist Patrícia Campos Mello became the target of the Bolsonaro family and his supporters after publishing a series of reports amid the 2018 presidential race on signs of mass messaging in the WhatsApp application in favor of then candidate Jair Bolsonaro. At the time, the conduct was already prohibited by the Electoral Justice.
The reports led to the opening of an Electoral Judicial Investigation Action (AIJE), but the case was eventually filed by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in October 2021. Unanimously, the ministers understood no evidence that the shots existed or that if they existed, they had a significant impact on the claim.
The case was also investigated by the Fake News Mixed Inquiry Mixed Inquiry Committee (CPMI), installed in 2019 and ended in 2023 without a final report. In the early 2020, a witness convened by Bolsonaro allies said he was seduced by Folha’s journalist to deliver information about mass shots, giving rise to sexual attacks on the professional.
To the court, Eduardo Bolsonaro’s defense claimed that the parliamentarian only replied that it was said by this witness, besides his speeches being protected by parliamentary immunity. In appeal to the Supreme, the lawyers claimed that, in condemning it, the São Paulo court violated the constitutional protection guaranteed to parliamentarians.
At the time, the attacks against the journalist were made in an interview published on the deputy’s YouTube channel and replicated on his profile verified in the former social network Twitter (present -day X).
In addition to Eduardo Bolsonaro, the journalist gained lawsuits for slander against Hans River, a witness who first attacked her at CPMI, and former President Jair Bolsonaro, who also made sexual hints about the journalist’s work while still holding the presidency of the Republic.
