The current president of the Vila Nova de Gaia City Council was today convicted of aggravated defamation and ordered to pay 2,500 euros in compensation to former mayor Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues. An additional 1,500 euros in criminal fine fees were also imposed.
In a reaction on his Facebook page, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues stated that he would not keep the compensation, which he will “directly endorse to CERCIGAIA and APPACDM-Gaia, in equal parts”.
Neither Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues nor Luís Filipe Menezes attended the reading of the sentence.
At the time of the incident in question, Luís Filipe Menezes was a former president of Vila Nova de Gaia, in the Porto district, having stepped down in 2013 after 16 years in leadership. The socialist Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues succeeded him as the leader of the municipality but did not complete his third and final term due to a conviction for embezzlement in June.
The case originated from a post by Luís Filipe Menezes, now the new president of Vila Nova de Gaia, on social media platform Facebook in October 2023, accusing Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues of interfering in a licensing process for his land.
Today, in a post on social media, the former socialist mayor emphasized: “What matters to me is proving that I never interfered in the decision not to license a house by personal request of anyone, whether an ex-mayor or not”.
“My municipal services acted correctly, treating everyone equally, as is right,” he added, also thanking “those who have trusted until today, even before the decision”.
The judge argued that the accusations made by Luís Filipe Menezes “exceeded propriety” and targeted the individual himself, not a political issue, and therefore should not be understood as exercising freedom of expression.
The court also noted that Luís Filipe Menezes admitted making his Facebook post out of anger.
In the contentious post, Luís Filipe Menezes blamed Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues for being the “instigator” of “criminal turnabouts”, such as altering technical opinions to his detriment, and announced he had reported the case to the authorities.
In the first trial hearing, which began on March 27, Menezes admitted to the facts and reiterated the statements made on Facebook.
During his testimony, he acknowledged that he was angry when he wrote the post, but even if he had not been, he would have written it the same way, because a right-minded citizen “cannot, nor should, be subjected to this,” referring to the entire process involving the licensing of his land, where he intended to build a house that ultimately was not constructed.
“This is gangsterism, I have no other term, and that’s what I think,” he remarked at the time.
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues had initially sought 10,000 euros in damages.
Menezes was also charged with an offense against a body, service or legal person, aggravated by publicity and slander.
However, two days after the local elections, the Vila Nova de Gaia City Council, then under the leadership of Marina Mendes, who replaced Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues after he was convicted and lost his term for embezzlement, withdrew the complaint against Menezes.
