For the first time, the Brasília Court condemns someone for a crime of prejudice based on comments published on the internet. And the accused is none other than a federal prosecutor, Leonardo Lício do Couto.
He was sentenced to two years in prison for committing the crime of racism for statements he made on an internet discussion forum.
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The penalty will be transformed into an alternative and the fine will be worth ten minimum wages. There is still an appeal to the prosecutor against the decision of the 3rd Criminal Court of Brasília.
The case occurred in 2007 – seven years ago – when Leonardo wrote in a public competition forum that "blacks, northeasterners and Jews were a bunch of people" and that they "represented the scum of society". During the trial, Leonardo acknowledged the authorship of the publication and tried to ensure that it was all a joke.
Despite the defense, the evidence showed that he recognized that the statements were in fact what he thought. "Actually, I'm not just anti-Semitic. I'm a skinhead. I hate Jews, black people and, especially, northeastern people (…). No, no. I'm really serious. I hate the riffraff I mentioned. ARGUI must belong to one of those groups that were the dregs of society."
According to the 3rd Criminal Court of Brasília, propagating this type of "opinion" through social media does constitute the crime of racism, the object of art. 20, § 2, of Law no. 7.716/1989″.
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For prosecutor Thiago Pierobom, the conviction serves as an example for other people who rely on anonymity and impunity to launch discriminatory attacks on social media.
"It is not acceptable to tolerate serious expressions of discrimination and then try to justify them as acts of jokes. You cannot joke about racism. It is necessary to create a cordon sanitaire against all forms of discrimination," he declared.
