06/10/2024 – 7:01
The publication of a false report on a social network by the PRTB candidate for Mayor of São Paulo, Pablo Marçal, meant that the first round campaign in the largest city in the country ended as a police case. The São Paulo Electoral Court examined and denied the candidate’s arrest request presented by Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), who was the target of the forgery that sought to portray him as someone who suffered a psychotic break associated with cocaine consumption. Judge Rodrigo Capez, however, ordered the suspension of the social network used by Marçal for 48 hours and the opening of an investigation by the Federal Police to investigate the practice, in theory, of four crimes.
Furthermore, experts from the Civil Police Criminalistics Institute concluded that the report presented by Marçal was false, the first step towards opening an investigation into the case at the state level. Supporter of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), who is running for re-election, Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) regretted the publication of the false report and said that, “if Brazil were serious, Marçal would go to prison”.
The PRTB candidate denied having participated in the forgery. He said he only published the document (more information on this page).
But the fact will also be analyzed by the highest Court in the country. Minister Alexandre Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered the candidate to explain himself within 24 hours. He cited the possibility of revoking the candidate’s registration, as “there are indications that he has committed abuse of economic power and misuse of the media”.
CONSEQUENCES
Experts in Electoral Law interviewed by the report stated that, with the conclusion that the report is false, Marçal could be revoked and become ineligible for eight years, in addition to facing up to eight years in prison for crimes against his rival’s honor and the use of false document in the election.
Lawyer Felipe da Costa, a specialist in Electoral and Administrative Law, adds the crime of abuse of economic power to the list of possible charges against Marçal. “The disclosure of the report will inevitably be the subject of action that could culminate in the conviction of Pablo Marçal.” FGV Direito Rio professor Isabel Veloso also sees the possibility of Marçal being framed for abuse of power and misuse of the media.
Since the first TV debate of this year’s campaign, on August 8, Marçal constantly insinuated that Boulos would use cocaine. He was forced by the courts to remove the publications from the air. The influencer published the false report on his Instagram account at 9:40 pm on Friday.
The document, filled out on prescription paper from Mais Consulta Clínica Médica, said that Boulos had been treated there for a psychotic episode, with an exam that would confirm the use of cocaine. The document was dated January 19, 2021 and was signed by doctor José Roberto de Souza.
It took just a few hours for the hoax to be dismantled even before the forensic examination was completed. First, Boulos showed that on that date he had participated in a live broadcast, defending the vaccine against covid-19 and, later, he went to an event in Osasco, in Greater São Paulo, according to publications on social media. The next day, he went to deliver food baskets to Favela Vietnam, in the south of São Paulo.
Soon after, information emerged that the owner of the Mais Consulta clinic, Luiz Teixeira da Silva Junior, had been convicted in 2023 by the Federal Court for document forgery. A friend of Marçal – both appear in several publications on social networks -, the businessman was found guilty of fraud to obtain his medical registration with the Regional Council of Medicine of Rio Grande do Sul.
Finally, the analysis of the document published by Marçal demonstrated numerous inconsistencies, from the poor Portuguese to the error in Boulos’ ID number. In a more serious aspect, the signature of the doctor who would certify the report was different from the one he had recorded on official documents. José Roberto de Souza died and, according to his family, never worked at the Mais Consulta clinic.
“My father never worked in the capital of São Paulo. Always served in Campinas and the region. In 2021, he no longer worked,” said doctor Aline Garcia de Souza, José Roberto’s daughter. Her father suffered from hemolytic anemia and died in 2022. According to her, the family will get together to take action against Marçal. “What was done is a crime.”
CRIMES
In the afternoon, Judge Capez reached a similar conclusion. When ordering the takedown of the candidate’s Instagram profile for 48 hours, he wrote that he refused to order his arrest due to electoral legislation and because he believed that blocking Marçal’s social network would be enough to maintain public order.
For the judge, Marçal, in theory, could have disclosed untrue facts in relation to parties or candidates capable of exerting influence on the electorate (penalty of 2 months to 1 year); defamed someone in electoral propaganda of an offensive nature (sentence of 3 months to 1 year); falsified private document for electoral purposes (penalty of up to 5 years in prison); and using a forged document for electoral purposes (up to 5 years in prison).
“This is news of concretely serious facts, perpetrated on the eve of the electoral election, in theory, with the clear purpose of interfering with the voter’s mood, through the dissemination, on social media, with extensive repercussion, of a false medical document”, he stated. the magistrate.
As a result, the judge ordered the company Meta, owner of Instagram, to remove the @pablomarcalporsp account from the air. And it set a fine of R$200,000 in case of non-compliance and ordered the removal of any profile that the candidate created to disseminate false information again. The goal met, and at 3:50 pm Marçal’s profile was offline. Marçal then used other profiles to continue on social media, including @spmarcal.
REPORT AND STF
Two hours earlier, lawyer Alexandre Pacheco Martins, who represents Boulos, had contacted the 89th Police District to file a complaint due to the publication of the report. The police station asked the IC to examine the document. A task force concluded that it was false due to the divergent signature. The report was released late in the afternoon. According to experts Nícia Harumi Koga, Marina Amaral Pais and Raphael Parisotto, a simple “eye inspection” was enough to confirm the falsehood.
While the Civil Police advanced in the investigation, another development of the case took place in Brasília. After the Federal Police found that Marçal had used the verified profile @pablomarcal to publish the false report against Boulos on platform X (formerly Twitter), the minister ordered the candidate to provide a statement to the PF within 24 hours. The minister explained in his decision that, according to investigators, Marçal had circumvented a court decision to use the platform and launch attacks against opponents. OX is suspended in Brazil by decision of the STF.
“It should be noted that the systematic use of this profile today, as well as in previous days, fits the hypothesis of monitoring extreme cases, in which users use subterfuge to access and publish on platform X, in a systematic and improper way, with the purpose of spreading disinformation in relation to the 2024 elections, with hateful and anti-democratic speech, as demonstrated by the Attorney General’s Office”, wrote Moraes.
TARCISIO
Finally, the case of the false report managed to unite Marçal’s opponents in condemning the farce. Mayor Ricardo Nunes stated: “I hope justice is swift, both electoral and criminal.” Alongside Nunes, governor Tarcísio de Freitas asked: “How are you going to take over a city hall, if anything goes to win an election?” Tarcísio argued that Marçal’s behavior does not match the beliefs he preaches.
“To invent a false document at this point in the championship, on a Friday night, on a live broadcast, a document that very easily everyone realized was false, it is incomprehensible what is happening. This causes outrage, and, unfortunately, we have these types of people running in an election in the main city in Latin America.”
The PSB candidate, Tabata Amaral, also condemned the publication of the report. “The delay of my opponents, for electoral convenience, and the delay of the court in seeing this, is what brought us here. We don’t play with criminals. A guy who committed so many irregularities shouldn’t even be a candidate.” Finally, it was Boulos’s turn to condemn the act. “We had already seen despair. Yesterday, one of them went as far as falsifying a document.”
INFLUENCER CLAIMS NOT TO SEE ‘OFFENSE’ IN PUBLICATIONS
During the agenda of the last day of campaigning before the first round of elections, Pablo Marçal (PRTB) said he saw no “crime” in the publication of a false report last Friday night, in which he accused Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) of a psychotic episode resulting from of cocaine use. For the influencer, the responsibility for the countertest lies with the PSOL candidate.
“There is no crime in this. The counter-proof is his”, stated Marçal during a press interview yesterday.
Furthermore, the PRTB candidate also stated that he was not afraid of his candidacy being challenged or, if elected, of being revoked. His answer to the question about possibility: “Zero.”
When asked if he had verified the veracity of the report when publishing it, he replied: “Whoever posted it checked it.”
As shown by Estadãothere is at least nine evidence of falsification of the report released by Marçal in the final stretch of the dispute for São Paulo City Hall. Among other items, the ID mentioned in the document is not that of Boulos and the signature of the doctor José Roberto de Souza – now dead – does not correspond to the one he used on official documents. Furthermore, the PSOL candidate was distributing basic food baskets in a community in the south of São Paulo on the day of the alleged hospitalization, January 19, 2021, as shown in posts reproduced last night on his social networks.
During a campaign event on the eve of the vote, Marçal walked among supporters
“I received it and published it about Boulos,” he declared. The businessman once again accused his opponent of being a drug user during the event that he called a “race for the people”. The influencer also said how he thinks his rival should be treated. “(Boulos is) someone who doesn’t deserve an ounce of respect. He used public money to destroy me”, he declared.
As determined by Estadão with lawyers specialized in electoral law, if the Electoral Court recognizes the published report as false, Marçal could be revoked and become ineligible for 8 years, in addition to facing up to 3 years in prison for a crime against his rival’s honor.
ELECTORAL CRIME
Experts see Marçal’s possible involvement in serious electoral crimes, in addition to crimes typified in the Penal Code.
Until the end of last night, Marçal had not commented on Supreme Minister Alexandre de Moraes’ determination that within 24 hours he would justify the use of the social network X (formerly Twitter) during the period of banning its access in the country. D
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
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