Extract from article published on Portugal Pulse on 26/04/2023 – accessible here.
Anti-racist activist Mamadou Ba begins trial today for defamation, publicity and slander in a case brought by neo-Nazi activist Mário Machado in which Ba has former minister Francisca Van Dunem as a witness.
Last October 27, it was made public that the anti-racism activist Mamadou Ba was going to trial for defamation of the former leader of the “Hammerskins Portugal” movement Mário Machado, after a decision by the criminal investigation judge Carlos Alexandre, who issued an order of indictment for trial in a single trial “in the exact terms” of the prosecution’s accusation.
“What he cannot do is substitute himself for the courts and invoke the right of freedom of expression,” concluded the investigating judge, regarding the defendant’s calling Mário Machado, in 2020, a “murderer” of the Cape Verdean Alcindo Monteiro, who was killed in Lisbon in June 1995 by members of a skinhead group.
Mário Machado was connected to that group, but he was not convicted of murder in the trial for the death of Alcindo Monteiro, which is why he decided to file a criminal complaint against Mamadou Ba for defamation, publicity and slander.