PF asks the STF to open an investigation against Nikolas Ferreira; jurist criticizes request

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) received this Thursday (9) a request from the Federal Police to open an investigation against federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) due to a speech against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in a United Nations (UN) event last year.

The document, which was distributed for analysis by Minister Luiz Fux, points out that the parliamentarian may have committed a crime of insult by calling the president a “thief”. The statement was made during a meeting of the organization’s young leaders in New York.

The request for investigation was initially made by the then executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli, following a demand from the president himself.

Nikolas Ferreira did not comment on the request to open an investigation, he only republished several posts on the topic on social media, one of them with the caption “Brazil, 2024”.

On the other hand, lawyer André Marsiglia, a specialist in freedom of expression, states that the request against the deputy is unnecessary and “in itself becomes an undue constraint on Ferreira’s freedom of expression”. This, he says, results in “undesirable self-censorship in the middle of an election year”.

“Their broad freedom of expression is strengthened by parliamentary immunity. The conduct of calling him a ‘thief’ occurred at the UN, on the deputy’s official agenda, in a tone of denunciation against the president, showing that he was taking advantage of his prerogative”, said the lawyer.

Also according to Marsiglia, the Judiciary has already established that “generic, emphatic or acidic insults” are part of the political debate, and that they cannot be seen as slanderous accusations. “Including against presidents of the Republic, as has happened in previous years with the judiciary’s acceptance of the use of the term ‘genocidal’”, he added.

During his speech at the UN, Nikolas Ferreira criticized some of Lula’s policies, such as gender ideology, and reinforced his stance against abortion.