Clóvis Abreu, who was convicted and later acquitted of the murder of PSP officer Fábio Guerra, has filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) against Chega leader André Ventura.
The inmate accuses the lawmaker of “aggravated defamation and discrimination,” as well as “incitement to hatred and violence.”
In the complaint, Abreu’s defense highlights that it is “inadmissible” for “a State Councilor, a Member of Parliament, a Doctor of Law, and the president of a political party” to have “a deceitful, xenophobic, discriminatory, third-world, and unacceptable discourse in a Democratic Rule of Law.”
Therefore, as Clóvis Abreu was “personally attacked,” along with his ethnicity, “in a slanderous and gratuitous manner,” the lawyers argue that André Ventura should be “scrutinized and punished in criminal court.”
André Ventura criticized, in a TikTok video shared in April this year, the acquittal by the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) of Clóvis Abreu.
“The acquittal of a gypsy, Clóvis, who after killing a police officer in Lisbon and then fleeing. There was a negotiation between the community and the Portuguese State – imagine, as if this happened to anyone else – to surrender voluntarily. As if gypsies had any privilege under the law. He murdered a police officer and yesterday [in April] he was acquitted, and his sentence reduced to six years. Is this what a police officer’s life is worth? How can we not be a criminal wilderness? With minorities and the unfortunate always being favored,” the political leader stated.
Clóvis Abreu was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison for qualified homicide in November 2024 after having been on the run for over a year. Besides him, two other former marines were also sentenced to 17 and 20 years in prison for the death of Fábio Guerra.
However, months later, in April this year, his lawyer, Aníbal Pinto, appealed the decision. The Lisbon Court of Appeal acquitted him, as it was not proven that Clóvis Abreu had kicked Fábio Guerra in the head.
The Court eventually sentenced him to six years in prison for attempted homicide and assault against another colleague of Fábio Guerra and a customer at the Moma nightclub in Santos, Lisbon, where the assaults took place on March 19, 2022.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) appealed, but in September, the STJ refused to overturn the Court’s decision.
Clóvis then decided to sue André Ventura. However, as his lawyer, Aníbal Pinto, is a friend of André Ventura, the case was passed on to another colleague.
