Gypsy Man Cleared of Police Murder Sues Far-Right Leader Ventura for Hate Speech

Clóvis Abreu Files Complaint Against André Ventura

Clóvis Abreu, a man of Roma ethnicity involved in the events surrounding the death of a PSP officer near the Mome nightclub in Lisbon in the early hours of March 19, 2022, but acquitted of the officer's homicide, has filed a complaint against Chega leader André Ventura for discrimination and incitement to hatred.

After evading justice while two of his companions from that night, both marines, were convicted in court for the fatal beating of Fábio Guerra, Clóvis Abreu eventually turned himself in. Although the first-instance court concluded that he had also participated in the homicide, the judges who re-examined the case at the Lisbon Court of Appeal decided in April that there was no evidence he had kicked the officer in the head. However, he was sentenced to six years in prison for violently assaulting another PSP officer present at the scene and another nightclub customer.

Upon learning of the verdict, André Ventura posted a video on TikTok, criticizing "the acquittal of a gypsy, Clóvis, who after murdering a police officer by beating in Lisbon still fled," as reported by Expresso, which broke the news of the complaint also accessed by PÚBLICO.

"He murdered a police officer and saw himself acquitted and his sentence reduced to six years. This is what a police officer's life is worth. How can we not be a savagery of crime? With minorities and the poor always being favored," the far-right leader fumed, insinuating that the Roma community was privileged "in the face of the law."

Currently serving his prison sentence for the assaults that night, considered by the justice system as attempted murder of the second officer who survived, Clóvis Abreu regrets the lies spread by the Chega president.

"It is inadmissible that a Council of State member, deputy in the Assembly of the Republic, holder of a doctorate in Law, and president of a political party, with the inherent ethical, political, and citizenship responsibilities enhanced by the positions he holds, has a lying, xenophobic, discriminatory, third-world, and unacceptable discourse in a democratic rule of law, attacking the complainant [Clóvis Abreu] and the ethnicity to which he belongs in a slanderous and gratuitous manner!" reads the complaint filed by his lawyer at the Lisbon Department of Investigation and Penal Action. According to the complaint, André Ventura committed two types of crimes: discrimination and incitement to hatred, on one hand, and defamation, on the other.

"The statements in question contain an offensive judgment of the honor of all citizens of Roma ethnic origin," the criminal complaint further states, adding that the Chega leader knew perfectly well he was lying when he made them.