O Chega leader wants the obligation to remove posters to be annulled and to pay a daily fine of 2,500 euros for each poster and day of non-compliance. The defense also asks for a new sentence to be handed down.
André Ventura’s appeal in the case of the posters targeting the gypsy community seeks to annul the sentence that condemned him to remove them, but the defense of the gypsy representatives contests this, stressing that this removal has already been carried out, “and well”.
Chega’s deputy and Ventura lawyer, Luís Gonçalves Pereira, asks in the appeal to which Lusa had access this Tuesday and which was filed with the Lisbon Court of Appealon January 7th, the annulment of the sentence of the Local Civil Court of Lisbon and that Chega’s leader be acquitted of all convictions.
O Chega leader wants the obligation to remove posters to be annulled – which the defense acknowledged to be more than a hundred spread across the country -, that he is no longer obliged to refrain from placing similar posters in the future and to pay a daily fine of 2,500 euros for each poster and day of non-compliance.
“Gypsies must obey the law”
The defense also requests that a new sentence be handed down, that it accept the arguments of the appeal and that it expressly declare that the posting of posters with the mention “Gypsies must obey the law” does not constitute “an illicit and direct offense against the personality of the perpetrators of the action, representatives of the gypsy community.
It also seeks to recognize that the first instance decision “directly collides with the fundamental right to freedom of expression”, especially in terms of freedom of political expression, with special protection in the Constitution.
Admitting that the TRL may have a different understanding, the defense asks that at least the sentence be changed in the sense of grant a “reasonable period of time to remove the posters (minimum of 30 days)eliminating the reference to ‘equivalent’ messages and substantially reducing the value of the compulsory financial penalty (to 20 euros per poster per day)”.
A defense of the plaintiffsin charge of lawyer Ricardo Sá Fernandes, he answered the statement by Ventura’s defense that the monetary sentence is “manifestly excessive and inappropriate to the appellant’s economic situation”, claiming that “there is no disproportionality”, adding that Ventura has demonstrated during the presidential campaign that “he has no shortage of economic resources”.
“Furthermore, the question also does not arise, because the appellant complied – and well – with the measures decreed”, he added.
Sá Fernandes claimed in the counter-allegations delivered on Friday that the Ventura’s appeal must be considered unfoundedfirst of all by not identifying the parts of the sentence and the statements of the parties and witnesses that he wants to see considered null and void.
At issue is the interpretation made of the poster
At issue are points given as proven by the court with regard to the interpretation made of the posterwhich was considered to have the meaning that gypsies do not comply with the law, which would be the reading made by a common citizen.
For Ventura’s defense, the court’s conclusion “does not result from the literal text of the poster”but an interpretation and assessment by the court itself, which is why it rejects that it can be considered as a “proven matter of fact”.
“The question of the possible discriminatory meaning of the message is a matter of law and not of fact, and cannot be established in advance as a proven fact”, claimed Ventura’s defense.
Sá Fernandes further disputes that his represented cannot allege violations of their personality rightsbecause they were not targeted individually, arguing that “it is incontrovertible that – in addition to the humiliation inflicted on the Roma people – the perpetrators (themselves) felt their dignity was injured”.
The lawyer also adds that “his [de André Ventura] freedom of political expression, but its exercise in a way that seriously undermines the dignity of the human person and the right to non-racial and ethnic discrimination”, rejecting that the measures enacted are “a form of political censorship”.
It also cites jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights to emphasize that It has been this court’s understanding that “statements that attack or attribute negative behavior to an entire ethnic group, culture or religion deserve little or no protection.”
Ventura was ordered to remove all posters
André Ventura was of his presidential campaign with mentions of the gypsy community, stipulating a 24-hour deadline for their withdrawal and a daily fine of 2,500 euros per poster for each day of non-compliancewith judge Ana Barão also condemning Ventura “to refrain from, in the future, determining or promoting, directly or indirectly, the posting of posters with identical or equivalent content”.
