The first criminal chamber of the Federal District Court of Justice acquitted this Thursday (19), by 2 votes to 1, the former president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Roberto Caldas, convicted last year, in trial, on charges of assaulting his ex-wife, Michella Marys.
The decision can be appealed.
The case came to light in 2018 and led Roberto Caldas to resign from his post as a court judge.
According to the indictment filed at the time, Marys claimed to have been brutally assaulted on at least four occasions and repeatedly called a “bitch”, “safa” and “bitch”. She recorded audio recordings of fights with her then-husband and took photos in which she appears with bruises.
Caldas was convicted in August 2020 by Judge Jorgina de Oliveira Carneiro e Silva Rosa, of the First Court of Domestic and Family Violence Against Women in Brasilia. She sentenced him to 6 months and 23 days in prison, in open regime, but suspended conditional execution, the defendant being a primary and the sentence not exceeding two years.
“THE [Primeira] To classify [do TJ-DF] understood that there was no evidence of the existence of the de facto routes and of the threat and that there had been no attempted unlawful embarrassment, “Caldas’s office said in a statement , moments after Thursday’s decision.
In an interview with Folha, in 2018, Caldas said his ex-wife was the one who was abusive in the relationship. He is said to have had extramarital affairs with two employees of his household, but has denied being harassed against them (another charge against him). About the audios in which he called his ex-partner “dog”, “safada” and “bitch”, among other insults, he said he was “deeply sorry”.
Marys’ lawyer Pedro Calmon also said in a statement released Thursday that he would appeal the ruling to higher courts.
“The vote of the judge rapporteur [Carlos Pires Soares Neto, que acabou vencido] it was clear, precise and underlined the enormity of the existing evidence supporting the conviction. The other judges, although having recognized the authorship and the materiality of the facts […], opted for doubt in favor of the accused, mistakenly understanding that the evidence would not be sufficient to convict.
Calmon said he would file special and extraordinary appeals to the Superior Court of Justice and the Supreme Court. “Roberto Caldas was not acquitted for having denied the paternity of these acts. He was acquitted for a technicality.”
Caldas advisers say the lower court’s conviction was based on false accusations. “Roberto Caldas celebrates the achievement of justice. After three years of false accusations that were brought to destroy his reputation, the truth is finally emerging.”
In 2012, Caldas was elected to compose the tribunal, which he chaired between 2016 and 2017. The lawyer was also a member of the Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency of the Republic from 2006 to 2012, under the terms by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. and Dilma Rousseff, of PT.
The American Convention on Human Rights provides that the judges chosen to compose the tribunal must be “elected in a personal capacity from among jurists of the highest moral authority, of recognized competence in human rights matters, who fulfill the conditions required for the exercise of the highest judicial functions “.