The story of the prosecution of Nelson Piquet, three-time world champion, for insulting comments about Lewis Hamilton has been continued. And it looks like it’s not over yet.
The case dragged on for a long time, as Pique’s statements were dated November 2021, and the Brazilian legal system only launched an investigation in the summer of 2022, with charges being filed against the former racer last spring. Their essence is that his public statements contained elements of racism and homophobia, and according to the court ruling he had to pay a huge fine of 5 million Brazilian reals (that’s more than 953,000 dollars).
Naturally, Pique Sr.’s lawyers have appealed, but the higher court rejected this, leaving the decision in force. But six months later it was announced that the fine had been withdrawn.
Initially, his defensive position was based on the fact that there was no offensive racist context in his speeches, as the specific words he uttered in the interview belong to the informal lexicon and are quite widely used in Brazil.
According to local online publication Metropoles, the fine has now been annulled by the Federal District Court.
In the next phase of the handling of the protest by Pique’s lawyers, the employees of the Brazilian Themis classified the statements of the 71-year-old Nelson as “mocking”, but not as “xenophobic”. That. The Federal District Court accepted the defense’s explanation that the defendant’s rhetoric was only informal in nature, although it was “full of some unconscious racist motives.”
In fact, the judge ruled that the statements did not contain serious insults and were not socially dangerous.
The charges against Pique were filed after appeals from several public organizations in Brazil, and a lawyer from one of them was present at this court hearing, after which he said that the verdict did not surprise him, but only confirmed that the legal situation of the country practice is at the level of the 19th century. He also vowed to immediately protest the Federal Court’s decision, which will be appealed to Brazil’s Supreme Court.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
