On Tuesday (23), the court sentenced deputy Gustavo Gayer (-GO) for moral damages for a publication on social media that held the PT responsible for the Presidency (PL) in the 2018 election.
The first instance decision was made by judge Wagner Pessoa Vieira and determined the payment of R$20,000 in compensation to the . There is an appeal.
The congressman’s defense team could not be reached to comment on the matter until the report was published.
The deputy published a video in which he stated that “the PT ordered Adélio Bispo to kill the then presidential candidate Bolsonaro”. “The person saying this is the killer himself. This is such a gigantic bomb. The press will do everything to hush up what I just said, so I ask that you share as much as possible,” the post stated.
According to the president’s party, the information that the PT was involved in the stabbing of Bolsonaro “is known to be false, already refuted by official investigations” and, therefore, the Bolsonaro deputy would have released fake news to harm the party’s image.
In 2024, the Federal Police against Bolsonaro and repeated that Adélio Bispo de Oliveira acted alone in the attack. The episode occurred in Juiz de Fora (MG) during a campaign event for Bolsonaro, who was elected president in the same year.
In his defense throughout the process in the DF Court, Gayer stated that its publication took place within the limits of political criticism and freedom of expression and is protected by parliamentary immunity.
The judge in the case, however, said that the post has no relation to the PL deputy’s mandate and that parliamentary immunity is not absolute and does not serve to protect the dissemination of false news.
“The defendant’s statement did not express any informative content or political criticism. It only disseminates a fact that is dissociated from reality. It should be noted that the Federal Constitution guarantees the right to free expression of thought, however, it does not allow excess”, said Vieira.
The judge stated that although Gustavo Gayer damaged the honor and image of Lula’s party by asking for the content to be shared as much as possible, which helped to disseminate information to thousands of people that was not proven.
“Considering that the comments and reports disseminated on social media have great reach and spread in a short space of time to millions, they must be based on facts that reflect reality, and it cannot be accepted that the holder of a public mandate, under the pretext of informing and, claiming to be protected by the constitutional guarantee of free expression and parliamentary immunity, acts with abuse of rights to spread false news, with the intention of attacking the party”, he stated.
