The former councilor of the Chamber of Porto Matilde Alves begins to be tried on Wednesday in the trial in which she is accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of defamation against the mayor of the municipality, Rui Moreira, on social networks.
The information was provided to the Lusa office this Thursday by a source from Porto’s local criminal court, known as the Bolhão Court, adding that the first hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on March 1, with continuation in the afternoon and on the day March 3.
On June 28, Porto’s Criminal Instruction Court (TIC) pronounced (decided to bring to trial) the former mayor in the exact terms of the MP’s charge. The defendant will respond for aggravated defamation for writing on her Facebook page messages that are “offensive to the image, credibility and prestige” of the mayor of Porto.who became an assistant in the process, after lodging a complaint with the MP.
According to the MP, Rui Moreira took office as mayor of Porto on October 22, 2013, while the defendant was a PSD councilor in Rui Rio’s executive, responsible for housing, “her mandate ended in 2013, still during the first term” of Rui Moreira, re-elected in the 2017 and 2021 municipal elections.
“It appears that in the period between April 25, 2019 and May 24, 2020, the defendant made several statements via her Facebook profile about the assistant, insulting to his image, credibility and prestige, as chairman of the town hall in the cause”says the prosecutor.
According to the member of parliament, between April 25, 2019 and May 24, 2020, the accused made 16 publications against the mayor of Porto, in which she says that Rui Moreira is “a coward, complex dictator, liar, narrow-minded, resentful”. and that he “can’t take criticism” and “blocks anyone who makes them”, also referring to some media outlets.
In the publications, the former councilor criticizes the attitude and decisions of Rui Moreira and the Municipality of Porto in several cases, addressing topics such as the Selminho trial, the concession of paid parking in the city, the garbage that accumulates in the streets of the city or the “explosions in the quarry 50 meters from the Arrábida Bridge”. “Moreira isn’t even a liberal! He’s a complex dictator, dressed with some of the qualifications that some media like to use. Moreira is… a despicable creature!”wrote the defendant in one of the ‘posts’ on Facebook.
According to the prosecution, when making the statements in the publications, the defendant knew “that the assistant (Rui Moreira) was mayor of the Porto City Council and that he was acting in the exercise of his functions”. Like him, wished to achieve the same in terms of dignity, honor and consideration as a holder of political office. Knowing full well that the remarks he made would be viewed as they were by an endless number of people, because they were published in one of the social services of networks with greater popularity and fame in Portugal”says the member of parliament.
For the MP, the fact that she had already taken up the position of councilor in the Chamber of Porto, “it was her duty to find out the truth of the facts, which she did not do by falsifying them”.
On April 29, 2022, when she made a statement at the TIC in Porto, the former councilor told the investigating judge that from the moment Rui Moreira posted a publication on Facebook in which he “injured and insulted” his family, namely her husband” , Fernando Charrua (former PSD deputy and teacher), felt “liberated from moral duty”, being an alderman in the municipality, and took her “civil intervention” as a citizen.
The now-retired teacher also said that after Rui Moreira’s publication on the social network, the publications he made on Facebook on various topics, aimed at the mayor, were just parts of “newspapers”, emphasizing that “he has nothing invented”, because “it was about facts”, and nothing prevented her from being a free citizen and having an opinion.
Source: DN
