Milton Martínez / Ministry of Culture of Mexico City
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
The sociologist gave up on civil actions and filed a criminal complaint for defamation against a group of 13 women, researchers and former students from the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, who have been accused of harassment.
The sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos or give up civil actions who filed a group of 13 women, researchers and former students at the Center for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra, opting for a crime by defamation.
“For two years, the complainant was convicted without judgmentnot even summarized, without even knowing a single complaint made against you after 2024. The conduct of the accused destroyed a reputation that led more than six decades to build, ”reads the crime complaint to which Lusa agency had access.
“I waited, with the action of guardianship of personality, a rapid decision that would allow, in some way, clean my name. But I realize now, almost a year after establishing the action, that these sentences will not have any useful effect on my good name, ”said the sociologist.
“Evil is done and is irreversibleand therefore, I communicated today, to my lawyers, my decision to abandon civil actions”He said.
The criminal complaint against 13 academicwhose behavior the sociologist believes to configure the defamation crimeswith advertising and slander, entered the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action of Coimbra on April 8.
Three researchers who passed by CES in a book chapter entitled “Sexual Mal Conduct at the Academy – for a university care ethics”, which led investigators Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Bruno Sena Martins They eventually occupied at CES in April 2023.
CES eventually created a month later, an independent commission to ascertain the complaints, having released the report almost a year later, in March 2024, that of power and harassment, by people in hierarchically superior positionswithout specifying names.
A week later, a group of 13 women urged, in a document signed by all, the Portuguese judicial authorities to urgently investigate the alleged criminal conduct mentioned in the report.
In September 2024, Boaventura de Sousa Santos Introduced a civil action For the protection of the personality, with which it seeks to ensure the protection of its good name and honor, in accordance with accusations of this group of women. The trial started in November, but, continues to finish.
In the criminal complaint, delivered in April in the diap of Coimbra, it is stressed that, by 2024, no complaint was made in the institutions where the group of 13 academics studied or taught, nor “with the entities that funded their scholarships, in the media or on social networks”.
“Not an anonymous complaint was there“He evidenced, adding that some of the denounced,” those who were closest to the complainant, “built his academic career” in the shadow of the complainant and his prestige. “
“While the complainant was useful to run for scholarships Doctoral and postdoctoral, to integrate social movements, to enrich their curriculum, to rise into the CES hierarchy, to integrate national or international research projects all praised him and showed affection for him. ”
In the document to which Lusa had access, it is still indicated that when Boaventura no longer is useful to them, “All associated themselves as a collective for Diphamar”.
“All are aware of the respective motivation that was obviously instrumentalized to remedy the complainant. The complicit conduct, and actively impeding the effective exercise of the complainant’s right of defense by CES responsible, indicates the serious and willful determination of Sanear the complainant ”.
In the criminal complaint, Boaventura calls for the criminal liability of the 13 women, stating that their international reputation and the work developed were irreparably hit.
“It is manifest the international repercussion that the aggression of the accused provoked and reached. image, honor, prestige of the complainant They were destroyed, violently shaken, if not even annihilated. Therefore, he believes the complainant who ways the protection of the personality no longer underrepresents his rights, and the conduct of the accused should be criminally punished, ”he concluded.
In an interview with the Brazilian Portal Public Agency, specializing in research journalism, the Brazilian state deputy Bella Gonçalves have been sexually harassed by the sociologist, who reported the case to CES – but they told him that The teacher “was untouchable”.
“Put your hand on my leg. Suggested that we deepen the relationship. I changed country, I dropped a scholarship, the damage is irreparable”Says the deputy, one of 13 women who accuse, Sousa Santos of harassment.
In June 2023, the sociologist, in an interview with Expresso, had “behaviors that In the past they were not seen as inappropriate”. In November last year, from the position of Emeritus Director of CES, of which he is a founding partner.
