A 53-year-old defendant has been ordered to pay five thousand euros to a judicial magistrate for non-material damages, according to a court ruling accessed by Lusa.
The prison sentence has been suspended for one year and three months, on the condition that the defendant pays the compensation within this period.
The defendant was also charged with six counts of defamation, with publicity and slander, which were aggravated, but he was acquitted of these charges.
The judge, who was serving at the Pombal Local Civil Court, presided over two cases involving the defendant.
Due to judicial decisions made against the defendant, he filed a criminal complaint against the magistrate, accusing him of actions he knew to be false. The aim was to initiate criminal and disciplinary proceedings and to damage the magistrate’s reputation, honor, and integrity both personally and as a state official.
The complaint was sent to the Attorney General’s Office in December 2021, and the judge was informed of it in February 2022 when he was notified by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Coimbra to respond.
The court found that the defendant accused the judge of acts “suggestive of the crimes of document forgery, influence peddling, denial of justice, prevarication, passive corruption for an unlawful act, and abuse of power,” which he knew to be false.
Proven facts indicated that the defendant was “aware of the falsity of the accusations” he made against the magistrate, motivated solely by malice and revenge due to the unfavorable decisions.
The investigation was closed in April 2022, concluding that the judge had committed no crimes.
The court stated that by filing the complaint, the defendant knowingly “completely misrepresented the facts of the events, with the conscious intent to deceive and undermine the sound administration of justice.”
As a result of the defendant’s actions, the judge felt “offended and humiliated in his honor and consideration, as well as diminished in his prestige and functional authority,” and found his honor and good name “deeply diminished.”
