In 2020, Taberna Belga entered Braga with a friend and saw a man wearing a Sporting Clube de Portugal shirt. He went up to a Sporting fan and said: “You came to dinner with this shirt on but you’re leaving without it.”
Minutes later, the target left the restaurant in São Vicente to smoke a cigarette, and was attacked with a baseball bat, receiving a blow to the head and another to the leg. The assault did not stop until the victim took off his Sporting Lisbon shirt.
The Criminal Court of Braga today sentenced Hugo B, aged 45, to one year’s imprisonment for a qualifying offense against bodily integrity, a sentence suspended for one year, but with the condition that he pay €124 to Braga. The hospital – the cost of treatment – and compensation to the victim, the amount of which was not disclosed, given that it was agreed upon between them, even if the judge approved it.
Payment must be made within 30 days in the case of the victim and 60 days to the hospital.
During the trial, the accused fully confessed to the facts, which prompted the judge to dispense with witnesses, meaning there was no need to enter the evidence production stage.
In addition to paying the two amounts and the costs of the case, the defendant, a first-time offender, will have to submit himself to what is called the evidentiary system, where the judge decides that he will have to present himself in court. The judge responsible for implementing the sentence and the forensic technician for social reintegration, subject to the reintegration plan to be developed.
In sentencing, the judge draws attention to the particularly denouncing of the crime, given that it was committed for a useless reason, a football club shirt, and also because he used a baseball bat, a particularly dangerous instrument.
When contacted on this matter, lawyer João Ferreira Araujo, of Braga, who represented the defendant, declined to comment on the ruling, saying only that the defendant had “learned his lesson and is already working.”
The case initially involved another accused named Fabio S., aged 27, also residing in the city, but the victim withdrew the complaint against him, a fact accepted by the judge since the crime in question was of a semi-public nature. He also had to compensate the victim.
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