The Lisbon Court of Appeal (TRL) has annulled the conviction of anti-racist activist Mamadou Ba in the defamation trial of far-right activist Mário Machado, ordering a retrial, SOS Racismo reported.
In a statement sent to Lusa today, SOS Racismo says that the Court of Appeal considered that the Lisbon Local Criminal Court “did not make an explicit assessment of the arguments put forward by the defense, nor did it even frame or contextualize Mamadou Ba’s statements, namely in light of the tragic events that occurred on the day of Alcindo Monteiro’s death, the participation of Mário Machado and his violent past, or the civic intervention of Mamadou Ba himself, as an anti-racist activist and defender of human rights”.
“For these reasons, the judgment appealed against was annulled for lack of reasoning, and a new trial was ordered, limited to weighing up the facts in the light of the documentation and evidence produced in the case file, which would allow Mamadou Ba’s publication to be properly contextualized,” says SOS Racismo.
SOS Racismo stresses that “the judicial process doesn’t end here”, but “welcomes this decision by the Lisbon Court of Appeal and the chance that Mamadou Ba has now been given to defend himself fully, to have his motives properly analyzed and weighed up in court and, in the end, to be acquitted of the infamous accusation leveled against him”.
“SOS Racism stands in solidarity with Mamadou Ba and all those fighting for democracy, against racism and xenophobia,” the statement concludes.
In October 2023, the Lisbon Local Criminal Court sentenced Mamadou Ba to pay a fine of 2,400 euros for defaming Mário Machado. At issue in the case is a post on social media in which Mamadou Ba wrote that Mário Machado was one of the main figures in the murder, on the night of June 10, 1995, of the young black man Alcindo Monteiro, in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto, committed by neo-Nazi elements.
Activist Mamadou Ba begins trial for defamation of Mário Machado
