Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) is accused by Arthur Lira (PP-AL) of alleged crimes against honor.| Photo: Pablo Valadares/Chamber of Deputies

The Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT) denied the claim for compensation submitted by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), against Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL).

Lira’s request was filed against Calheiros for statements posted on social media last year. The senator accused his political opponent of alleged embezzlement and interference in the Federal Police in Alagoas, reported Agência Brasil.

In the decision issued this Friday (2), Judge Margareth Becker, of the 2nd Civil Court of Brasilia, considered that both congressmen were offended on social networks and, therefore, the application of compensation would not fit in the situation. “Physical or verbal aggression, perpetrated reciprocally, does not have the power to generate indemnifiable moral damage, although the irregularity of the conduct of those involved removes the duty to indemnify”, says the judge.

Despite the decision of the TJDFT, the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) André Mendonça decided, last Wednesday, to suspend the criminal action in progress in the justice of the DF. According to Mendonça, the case must be processed by the Supreme Court due to the privileged jurisdiction of parliamentarians. The minister recalled that the Court has already defined that accusations related to the mandate of parliamentarians must be judged by the STF.