The São Paulo Electoral Public Prosecution Service denounced the former mayoral candidate of São Paulo () on charges of electoral defamation against the former candidate and federal deputy ().
According to electoral prosecutor Cleber Rogério Masson, to his deathbed, the influencer and businessman intended to shake the reputation of his political competitor and raise votes in his favor.
The complaint was filed on Monday (14). In a statement, Marçal’s defense states that there is no element that constitutes an electoral crime in the speech in question and that, later, during a debate, the then candidate retracted.
“Technical defense reinforces that there was no deceit, personal offense or any attempt to obtain electoral advantage through the statement,” says a note signed by lawyers Paulo Herschander and Paulo Hamilton Siqueira Júnior.
It also says that Marçal “was publicly portrayed in September 2024, during a debate promoted by a press vehicle, apologizing for any misinterpretations of his speech, in a gesture that demonstrates good faith, democratic spirit and absolute respect for the personal life of his opponents.”
In July 2024, amid pre-campaign to the São Paulo City Hall, Marçal gave an interview to an Istoé magazine podcast, in which he suggested that Tabata abandoned his father when he moved to the United States to study at Harvard University.
“I also had a father who was an alcoholic, but the family helped him and he left alcoholism. Her father, she went to Harvard and her father died. I imagine what she can do with the people of Sao Paulo,” Marçal said at the time.
Months later, Marçal asked her for forgiveness for the episode. “I really was unfair with the tabata, I went through the limit,” he said at the time.
The Electoral Code provides for the penalty of detention from three months to one year, in addition to the payment of a fine, for the conduct of “defaming someone, in electoral propaganda, or aiming at propaganda purposes, imputing to him offensive to his reputation.”
It also provides that the penalty increases from one third to half, when the crime is committed through the internet or social network or with real -time transmission.
It is also included in the complaint a request to set a minimum amount to repair the damage caused to the victim.
According to the prosecutor, with such words, Marçal “offended the objective honor of Tabata, with the undisguised purpose of convincing an undetermined number of people that she does not even value her own father, which is why, if elected mayor, would not watch over the population of Sao Paulo.”
It also says that the conduct “aimed at the purposes of electoral propaganda”, because Marçal “aimed to shake the reputation of tabata before the São Paulo electorate, raising, in his favor, votes that could be destined to her.”
He also argues that the broadcast had wide repercussion, with over 850,000 views until the time of the complaint, not to mention disclosures on social networks and the press.
The prosecutor also says that, although it is an infraction of less offensive potential, it would not be in the present case to offer a criminal transaction agreement. Among other arguments, he cites the episode in the peak of the Marins.
“It is clear, therefore, that the social conduct and personality of the agent, in addition to the circumstances of the crime now imputed, in which he, in search of electoral prestige, attacked alien family values, in a deplorable and appealing manner, prevent the incidence of the benefit,” he says.
