Em at the exit of the court after the current local municipal council president was ordered to pay a compensation of 2,500 euros to the offended party, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, plus another 1,500 euros in criminal fine fees, António Fernandes da Silva stated that the court’s decision “was not the most correct”.
“It is a decision that we respect, naturally, as it could not be otherwise, but it is a decision that we do not understand to be the most correct,” began the lawyer, ensuring they will thoroughly review the sentence before potentially filing an “imposed appeal”.
For António Fernandes da Silva, who justified the mayor’s absence in court today due to professional reasons, “what was at issue throughout the process was not what was said, nor who said it (…), but rather understanding what the limits are of freedom of expression, the right to critique, and political combat”.
“We believe it is clear that those who operate in the public sphere, especially politicians, are more exposed to criticism and sometimes harsher critique than others or those who disagree with them might have about them,” he argued.
Luís Filipe Menezes was accused of aggravated defamation due to the status of the offended party, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, as well as publicity and slander.
At the time of the incidents in question, Luís Filipe Menezes was a former president of the Vila Nova de Gaia City Council in the Porto district, having left in 2013 after 16 years in leadership, and the socialist Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues was the head of the municipality, who succeeded him in office and did not complete the third and final mandate after being convicted of misuse in June.
The case originated from a Facebook post by Luís Filipe Menezes, who is now the new president of the Vila Nova de Gaia City Council, made in October 2023, accusing Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, then president of the municipality, of interfering in the licensing process of his land.
In her argument, the judge stated that the accusation made by Luís Filipe Menezes “exceeded propriety” and targeted the person himself, not being a political issue, and therefore should not be understood as exercising free speech.
The court also remembered that Luís Filipe Menezes admitted his post on Facebook and that he did it because he was angry.
Before the sentence was read, the judge noted the withdrawal of the complaint by the Vila Nova de Gaia City Council against the defendant.
In the post, Luís Filipe Menezes blamed Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues for being the “mastermind” of “criminal somersaults”, such as the alteration of technical opinions to his detriment, and announced that he had handed the case over to the authorities.
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues did not attend the reading of the sentence either.
In a case where Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues is accused of defaming Luís Filipe Menezes, also by a Facebook post, and which had an instructional debate this week, the former president of the Gaia City Council argued it was a political act.
“As I cannot comment on the text of a patient who persecutes me, I write here that I will promote the cleansing of the lies he utters in court. With a low language, pretending to be a great fraud, he descends to his own level,” wrote the former mayor.
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues’s lawyer, Leopoldo Carvalhaes, argued in the debate that “in politics, if you can’t stand the heat, don’t work in the kitchen,” suggesting that politicians must have “thicker skin to withstand criticism”.
The lawyer for the former socialist mayor considered that Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues’s post should be seen as a “counter-attack” and not as isolated offenses, emphasizing that the post by Menezes that “provoked this response” is also “indecent”, denying the accused “the honor he claims for himself”.
