The claim of the lawyer Paulo de Moura Marques was manifested during the preliminary debate in the "Bride's Dresses" case, after Paulo de Morais asked the TIC to evaluate private accusations of Bornito de Sousa and his daughter, supported by the Public Ministry, or in the process of criminal investigation wants now under investigation.
The process aimed at the leader of the Civic Front is based on public considerations he produced about the purchase of a wedding dress and other items for the wedding of the current Angolan vice president's daughter, in 2014, which will have cost more than 200 thousand dollars, in a country "where people are dying in the street from hunger and disease".
"This is a gratuitous offense, it is not freedom of expression. There are limits and the defendant crossed them," said Paulo de Moura Marques before investigating judge Cristina Malheiro.
Paulo de Morais' lawyer, Carlos Cal Brandão, asked the judge to dismiss the defendant, that is, to choose not to bring him to trial, saying that part of the evidence was taken to the process without respecting the legal rules, arguing that the his client acted in the framework of defending the public interest, targeting only public figures and resorting to his right to freedom of expression.
"I'm not going to get lost in the high clouds of sociology. There is no validated evidence that the defendant committed the crime he is accused of," he said, referring to the allegedly illegal way in which some testimony was brought to trial.
"And everything the defendant said, albeit with variations, is clearly shown in the records," he added, citing television reports that have not been denied and which, therefore, Paulo de Morais "took as the truth".
Still in the instructional debate, the prosecutor seconded the role of the Public Ministry ("it's small", he said), because there was a private accusation about something with a "concrete sense of insult".
As the current vice-president of João Lourenço, Bornito de Sousa was, at the time of the facts, minister of Territory Administration. And, from the perspective of the leader of the Civic Front, Bornito and his daughter, contrary to their conduct, gave the image of distancing and demarcating allegedly reprehensible practices of the former Angolan leadership of José Eduardo dos Santos.
In this context, Paulo Morais came to classify Naulila as "the new princess of Angola", in comparison with the businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Eduardo dos Santos, known as the "princess of Angola" and targeted in the "Luanda Leaks" process.
In the expression of those targeted, Morais would thereby qualify Naulila's personal and professional conduct as "close or similar" to that of Isabel dos Santos, "who is being targeted in the media and in public opinion for criminal facts".
Paulo de Morais' observations that gave rise to the "Bride's Dresses" case centered on January 2020, on a social network and on a television channel, and were later reaffirmed, despite the plaintiffs' requests for him to withdraw.
The leader of the Portuguese Civic Front reaffirmed on his official page on the Facebook network: "The facts that I reveal in these communications that I have made on the subject are objective, verifiable. constitutional, which is my right to freedom of expression. I do not change, withdraw or add anything to what I said."
Later, speaking to the German chain Deutsche Welle (service in Portuguese for Africa), he said: "In a country where people are dying on the streets of hunger and disease, a country that has the highest infant mortality rates in the world, one of the countries that has the lowest life expectancy at birth in the world, the vice president of the country spends around 200 thousand dollars on her daughter's dress at her wedding (...), I think this is aggressive, I think this would even be savage towards a people that the vice president of your country has to respect."
In March 2021, the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Porto followed the private indictment, in which the leader of the Portuguese Civic Front is required to pay compensation of 750,000 euros. And Morais requested the instruction of the process now underway.
In addition to being the leader of the Frente Civica, Paulo Morais is a university professor, co-founder of Transparency and Integrity (TIAC), former candidate for the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic and vice-president of the Porto Chamber from 2002 to 2005.
Two representatives of the Angolan state attended this Wednesday the instructional debate.
The preliminary ruling must be communicated to the parties on the 16th, according to the investigating judge.
