The mayor of Porto and former councilor Matilde Alves reached an agreement in court on Friday, in the trial in which the defendant was accused by the Public Prosecution Service (MP) of defaming Rui Moreira on social media.
In the agreement, obtained at the first session of the trial, which took place in the court of Bolhão, in Porto, the PSD councilor in the executive branch led by Rui Rio assumed that she will not accept the publications she has published on her page on the social network had made, surpassed. Facebook and that they “did not correspond” to reality, which is why he apologized to the mayor of Porto.
Rui Moreira, for his part, assumed that it was “never the intention to insult” the defendant’s husband, Fernando Charrua (former PSD deputy and professor), in a “message” posted on his Facebook page in April 2019 page was published, accepting the defendant’s apology and withdrawing her civil damages claim.
The MP’s accusation states that between April 25, 2019 and May 24, 2020, the defendant made 16 publications against the mayor of Porto, in which she says that Rui Moreira is “a coward, a complex dictator, a liar, narrow-minded, indignant” and who “can’t take criticism” and “block those who make them”, also referring to some social communication.
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”.
Before the parties reached an agreement, at the end of this Friday morning – largely through the intervention of the judge and the Public Prosecution Service – both the suspect and Rui Moreira made statements.
Matilde Alves maintained what she had said in the instructional phase: that from the moment Rui Moreira posted a publication on Facebook in which he “insulted and insulted” her family, namely her husband, Fernando Charrua, she felt “liberated from moral duty” , because she was a councilor in the municipality, and took her “civil intervention” as a citizen.
The now-retired teacher reiterated that, after Moreira’s publication on the social network, the publications she posted on Facebook on various topics, aimed at the mayor, were just shares of “newspapers”.
In the “post” published on his Facebook page, in April 2019, days before the first publication of the accused, Rui Moreira posts a news item entitled “PSD Porto criticizes project management [Cinema] Batalha’, and makes several considerations.
“Bad luck for Távoras? Why does PSD choose to criticize CMP’s cultural policy [Câmara Municipal do Porto] the day it gets more exposure in the media? No, I’m missing a golden age. From that great time when Dona Laura managed Batalha and operated La Feria Rivoli. In which culture was seen as subsidized (…), in which the well-mannered official Charrua, after insulting a ruler, and thus the target of a disciplinary investigation, was heralded as a hero over the loudspeakers of the circuit (…)”, reads the publication.
This Friday, Rui Moreira explained that the publication was part of “the normal political battle”, focusing on the cultural policies followed by the previous executive led by Rui Rio, compared to his own, adding that “he never intended to insult her.” husband of the defendant.
The mayor of Porto said in court that it is one thing to disagree with his style, his management, and that is “reasonable and acceptable”. those of the municipal services, recalling that the defendant was not just anyone, since he was a councilor in the municipality.
As part of the investigation, the mayor of Porto was questioned by the court about the fact that the defendant had written that he was a dictator.
“I don’t feel offended because she calls me a dictator. It doesn’t bother me at all. I wouldn’t have sued her for that,” Rui Moreira replied, saying he “also thinks Rui Rio [anterior presidente da Câmara do Porto] was a dictator”.
Source: DN
