Attention! Varandas and Sporting run rings round Porto off the pitch | OneFootball

After the victory in the first instance, in July, Frederico Varandas was once again acquitted, now by the Lisbon Court of Appeal, for calling Pinto da Costa, former president of Porto, an “active corrupter” on March 5, 2022, the day of the last Sporting elections.

In line with the decision of the Lisbon Local Criminal Court, the Appeal considered that “in the specific situation, the expressions used” by the Sporting leader “are covered by freedom of expression". In the ruling, which the Record newspaper had access to, it can be read that “when the defendant [Varandas] states that the assistant [Pinto da Costa] is an active corrupter, he does so considering a specific case in which he was a defendant and charged with the crime of active sports corruption".

The Lisbon Court of Appeal understood that, despite Pinto da Costa not being held accountable, Frederico Varandas exercised the right to freedom of expression. “The expressions used, despite the assistant [Pinto da Costa] not having been convicted of any active corruption crime, are not susceptible to criminal protection, falling within the right to opinion and criticism”, the ruling describes.

It should be noted that, last week, more specifically on January 28, the Porto Court of Appeal had already acquitted Frederico Varandas for calling Pinto da Costa a “bandit” on October 23, 2020. The Sporting leader was also accused of the crime of defamation.

Varandas described Pinto da Costa as an “active corrupter”, suggesting the designation as an alternative to... “bandit” which he had used two years earlier. “Regarding that, no one ever intends to offend someone when telling the truth. I only told the truth and that does not offend. If you want to change the word, I can change bandit to active corrupter”, he then stated.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.