New Gonzo interview on PJGA blog

15 May 2015
Nova Gente: Interview With Gonçalo Amaral

For the first time, Gonçalo Amaral speaks about the case that destroyed his career, his family and his health...

“My life is gone, I’m only alive due to my heart”

Condemned to pay 500 thousand euro to the parents of Maddie, the little English three-year-old girl that disappeared in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, on the 3rd of May of 2007, the former inspector will fight until the last legal instance, because he is “a free man and citizen” with “the right to express opinions”.

What was your reaction when you found out that the verdict from the court was unfavourable to you in the defamation suit that the McCanns filed against you?

I found out about the verdict through a friend who called me telling me about the news on the radio. I immediately called my lawyer, but he hadn’t been notified and the verdict was not in the process. It’s sad, but my lawyer could only access the sentence, that afternoon, because a British journalist sent it to him by e-mail. There is no doubt that the couple’s lawyer has good connections at the court. My reaction was one of calm and a wish to read the full contents of the verdict as soon as it was available on the Citius website, which only happened the next day, but with the date of the previous day. Mysteries which the webs of justice weave.

Were you surprised?

I wasn’t surprised, it was one of the open possibilities, but after the decision about the matter of fact, which was favourable to me, I trusted that the verdict would come in the same direction.

Do you think there are errors in the process? Do you feel wronged?

Those are not mistakes, but value judgements and understandings that are contrary to mine and to that of many other jurists. As for feeling wronged… What do you think? I can only ask if those who, for more than five nights, left their three children, aged three and two, to their own devices in a house within an unknown space, subjecting them to a thousand dangers, while they were partying with friends – not to mention the amounts of alcohol that was ingested on those occasions -, still has the right to be compensated. They practiced a crime of exposing and abandoning defenceless children and they weren’t even accused of that fact. Looking at our criminal legislation, at the English child protection legislation and at cases that recently happened with British subjects in the Algarve, after drunken nights, all that I can say is that the McCann couple is primarily responsible for their daughter’s disappearance. She only disappeared because they neglected her guard and, as parents, they were obliged to it. It is a fact that they lost their daughter, but that doesn’t give them the right to sue anyone or to be compensated. They can’t escape their guilt, which is enough to rob them of their sleep, to provoke a lack of appetite and even rage, but against themselves and not against someone who only wrote down what happened during the first five months of the investigation, according to what is in the case files. If compensation takes place, all that I can do is warn you: be careful, there’s people who may turn this into a new business!

Don’t you feel revolted by this verdict?

I don’t feel revolt, but I do not conform to it, I still trust our country’s justice system, for which I have worked for over 25 years, and I still am a free citizen with all my rights. On the other hand, even the question that Maddie’s siblings, then aged two, may someday read my book and become traumatized doesn’t concern me. Those two children were also abandoned for over five nights in a row and surely they will understand that what is written there is the result of a criminal investigation.

There is a question that those two children will certainly ask when they grow up but that question will be directed at the parents: why were they abandoned, left to their own devices? Those children are free to think and to conclude that whatever happened to their daughter could have happened to one of them. The parents can only fear that their two children who did not disappear on that tragic night revolt against them.

The court says that you caused Maddie’s parents and siblings moral damages…

In my understanding, there are no damages that, objectively and factually, may have resulted from my writing. Which is to say, there is no causal nexus between the book or the documentary and any damages. On the other hand, what is spoken about, like the feelings of rage, it can hardly be considered a damage.

The couple demanded one million two hundred thousand euro. The court has sentenced you to pay 500 thousand euro – including interest since 2010 – over damages that were caused by the publication of the book Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira. Aren’t both the request and the damages awarded by the court exaggerated?

There is no defamation crime, I haven’t been tried over any crime, if at all I am being tried over an offence of opinion, something unthinkable 40 years after the revolution of April of 1974, which ended the [fascist] Estado Novo, censorship and all the means that oppressed Portuguese citizens from thinking, speaking and writing freely. On the other hand, what is in the book is in the process, those are not lies, that can be verified by comparing the case files with the book and this court has not put that truth at stake. Nonetheless, a compensation of that amount only clarifies that the McCann couple is worth more than any Portuguese citizen, dead or alive, and that they are above any god or divinity, which, according to politicians, Portuguese intellectuals and others from the so-called democratic world can be criticized, ridiculed and satirized. Look at the discussions about the terrorist attacks against French newspaper Charlie Hebdo… With my book I did not defame, nor did I have the intention to defame anyone, but merely to report what happened during the first five months of the investigation, thus replying to the attacks against my good name and my professional dignity. There is no, no can there be any, reserve duty that superimposes our right to react and to defend ourselves from defamation and injustice, putting the truth back when our fundamental rights are violated, even when the authors of such attacks are subjects of a powerful country, to which Portugal has always bowed, with a short interregnum when the Portuguese Republic was founded, largely a result of the English ultimatum.

Apart from the payment, the court decreed the prohibition of the sale of new editions of the book Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira. Nevertheless, the Appellate Court had decided to annul this prohibition back in 2010…

This court has not undone what had been decided by Lisbon’s Appellate Court within the injunction that was filed by the complainants. It should be clarified that the only decision that has, so far, become effective is that of Lisbon’s Appellate Court. That is the only one that is in force, the rest is still subject to appeal and it will take a few years to come into force, while I hope that our superior courts will see this differently from the lower court. This is just the judicial system working, therefore we need to remain calm.

In a more practical manner, I can say that the claimants, the McCanns, haven’t won anything yet, they only lost, namely with the decision from Lisbon’s Appellate Court, which is very clear in stating that the rights that have been violated were mine, that I, within the exercise of freedom of speech, could write the book and practiced no illicit action.

With this prohibition, are you forbidden from emitting an opinion about the case or about the McCann couple?

I am a free man, and like any other citizen in this country, I have the right to express my opinions. I was a Criminal Investigation coordinator, a policeman, and there is no reserve duty, a functional or merely instrumental thing, from the exercise of a profession, that superimposes a fundamental right and freedom of expression. To state that the duty of reserve limits freedom of expression for life, or even during the exercise of the profession of policeman, is to elevate that duty, which is merely administrative, above freedom of expression and fundamental rights, consecrated in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and on the European Convention of Human Rights.

When you wrote the book, did it ever occur to you that you could be committing an offence?

I wrote the book because I, those who worked with me and the institution of the Judiciary Police were being put at stake. My good name and professional honour were severely attacked. In a first phase, I started by writing to the Judiciary Police’s national director, asking him to allow me to defend myself publicly or to come out to defend us, and I obtained no reply. Today, after all these years, I know that Dr. Alípio Ribeiro never received my letter, which was simply set aside by someone hierarchically below him.

Faced with the inertia and the silence from the institution that I belonged to, which, in my opinion, had the duty and the obligation to come out and defend the men and women who, with their work and great sacrifice, tried to protect it by performing an investigation at the level of any minimally developed country, I decided to ask for my retirement, and to report the criminal investigation that had been carried out and the conclusions that were reached up to the moment that I coordinated said investigation. At that time we already knew that the case was going to be shelved and the investigation abruptly ended. Everything was being prepared in that sense with the agreement, at least tacit, from the parents of the missing child, with the ase files being delivered to journalists by the Public Ministry, which in itself question the duty of reserve to which, according to some experts, the policemen were subject to.

The book was a way to reply to the humiliation and the offences that I have been targeted with. Deep down, that was it: they say we are incompetent, they say we are a third world police force, drunkards, fat, lazy, etc., etc., and the Judiciary Police does not set out to defend us. Therefore I turned to writing, reporting the investigation that had been carried out, so people could draw their own conclusions. What happened next is known.

Do you feel abandoned by the intellectuals and the writers of this country?

Since I left the Judiciary Police, I am part of no institution, I have no political party, nor am I a member of any sports, recreational, cultural or social association, I do not belong to any congregation or obedience. I wrote three books (Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira; A Mordaça Inglesa; Vidas Sem Defesa), but I do not consider myself a writer. I’m an outsider.

Is freedom of expression not compromised by this type of verdict?

What is happening to me, since 2009, is an attack against freedom of expression and a trial over an offence of opinion. The intellectuals of this country, in general, have reacted with indifference. I am not part of their group, and to make things worse I’m an ex-policeman, something that is reproved by many. As far as I remember, only Dr. Francisco Teixeira da Mota, when the Appeals Court’s decision came out, wrote about the matter, saying that the decision had been correct, as the Portuguese State risked being condemned by the European Court for Human Rights… Someone asked me why the Portuguese Authors’ Society had not come out to defend freedom of expression and to denounce the attack that is underway. I replied I was not a member, which may explain the silence.

Are you still dedicated to writing?

I continue to write, but I have yet to decide when to publish. At the moment, I am writing my memoirs about the profession of criminal investigator.

Why are you economically suffocated? Your house in Tavira went to the bank, your consultancy firm had to close, one third of your pension is arrested…

To all of those questions I only reply that my life is gone. If I am alive, it’s due to the heart that I have.

Have you never considered suing the McCanns over the damages that they caused to your family?

Each thing in its own time, it won’t be only the McCanns, but their group of friends, and other people and entities that will be sued. There is an illicit action that was indeed performed, the neglect in guarding their children, which caused direct damages to many people, not only to myself, but for example to the Ocean Club workers, who were fired and saw their lives change, many of them unjustly passing from mere employees and heads of family to suspects in a criminal investigation, while they had nothing to do with the matter.

Is there a project that you would like to realise some day?

I would like to channel all the support that I have been receiving into the creation of an institution to support children and teenagers at risk, in a perspective of educating them for life, escaping the benefits perspective, promoting and building life projects with them, helping them to escape marginalization and the labeling process.

With so many problems, do you still have time to dream?

Dreaming is a part of free men, it costs no money, it can’t be bought, and we just live and feel it.

What remains unexplained in this case?

I don’t answer that question. Faced with what was said by the couple, after the verdict was known, that they felt stronger, I just feel like saying that only vampires become stronger with their victims’ blood. Like Zeca Afonso [Portuguese songwriter and singer] sang, “they eat everything”…

Text: Alexandra Ferreira (alexandra.lemos.ferreira@impala.pt);
Photos: Lusa, Paula Alveno and IMPALA

in: Nova Gente, 15.05.2015, paper edition

1.  His thicko devotees seem to be missing that part of his latest outburst - probably didn't notice it in all the lying and whining:

She only disappeared because they neglected her guard

So, he admits all his ghoulish inventions about defrosting corpses were a pack of lies? Ms Duarte will be sooo pleased.

He still doesn't understand Portuguese law - that it was foolish of the McCann party not to make better arrangements for childcare, but it was NOT negligence.

Mind you, if they had known about the attacks on other children in PDL, they would ALL probably have stayed in their apartments 24/7 with the doors and windows barricaded, taking it in turns to sleep.

He should hang his head in shame, frankly - along with all of his thicko supporters.

2.  Incidentally, have the fools handing over their money to Amaral checked to make sure he's paid his earlier legal bills? And lawyers? After all, he sacked his last new lawyer, the 'police super-lawyer', without paying him:


Gonçalo Amaral dismisses lawyer without paying him the full amount of fees

Process. The trial of the lawsuit that was filed by the McCanns didn’t take place yesterday because the former PJ inspector decided to dismiss his defence

by Rute Coelho
June 17, 2014

“I was caught by surprise. Gonçalo Amaral called me at 22h00 on Sunday warning me that he was going to dismiss my services in the McCann process. He didn’t say why”, lawyer Santos de Oliveira, who had prepared closing arguments to be presented on Monday, told DN yesterday. Due to Amaral’s decision, yesterday’s session was only used to schedule closing arguments for July.

“What happened was more than bizarre. My fees have not been paid in full yet. I have only received part of it”, Santos de Oliveira mentioned, refusing to comment if Gonçalo Amaral’s eventual financial difficulties lie behind the former Judiciary Police inspector’s decision to dismiss his defence.

 

3.  The kind of hater troll that supports Amaral:

Louisa Taylor They say revenge is a dish best served cold and if ga is as clever a man as we presume hell wait till the mccanns are on the bones of their ass and let them have it both barrels. Good luck ga.

'Revenge'? For what? Gonzo's troubles are entirely of his own making - and started long before the McCanns ever had the misfortune to set foot in Portugal.

These numties sound like the kind of half-wit that feels sorry for serial killers, frankly.

4.  He has stated in that quote, that they are guilty of the crime of "exposing and abandoning defenceless children", They were never charged or found guilty of any crime.

He has defied the Judge and talked about the McCanns, and further libelled them.

He has admitted she was abducted, which goes against what he said in the book.

And as for
" the former inspector will fight until the last legal instance, because he is “a free man and citizen” with “the right to express opinions"

The judge made it clear that he didn't write it as a citizen with an opinion: He wrote it whilst still a member of the PJ and was using information that belonged to the State - which was subject to the secrecy laws he was obliged to abide by - combined with his own theories, to personally profit from the case. He set himself up as judge and jury.

Quite; he has, I suspect, blown his own feet off with that whinefest.

Is Gonzo EVER going to man up and take responsibility for his own actions? No wonder he's so disliked in Portugal, he always blames other people and, well, whines......

If he has actually abandoned his "parents dunnit" theory and yet STILL feels no remorse for his actions, then he truly is come across psychopathic (in my opinion).

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-Guest-Public-Information-Page/341316366052378?fref=photo

****WORLD EXCLUSIVE***** - GONZO'S SOB STORY
'HOW FAILING MADELEINE HAS RUINED MY LIFE'
IT IS ADVISED THAT THIS TRANSCRIPT SHOULD BE READ WITH VIOLIN BACKGROUND MUSIC ...

So, that sick oxygen thief is now following in his fan clubs' footsteps and making threats involving Madeleine's brother and sister? mad

Time the media put a stop to this and told the world EVERYTHING about Amaral and the sickos that worship him. There are very good reasons why he is virtually friendless in Portugal, which the media are aware of.

And he didn't get that perjury conviction for nothing, either.

Please note - only one third of his pension has been arrested to pay OTHER debts, just as the house he is whining about was siezed to pay OTHER debts. He's even lying in his whining interview.

And his pension is STILL over 2,000 euros a month - the equivalent of some £1,500.

How many of those handing over money to him have an income of £1,500 a month?

Re: Amaral Interview
scoobydoo » Fri May 15, 2015 12:42 pm

What sort of an idiot gets convicted of defamation then goes on to further defame his victims whilst appealing.

The McCann's did not go out partying. They went to eat dinner fifty yards away.

There is no evidence they were drunk. No witnesses make any claim to that effect and the police files show that the friends brought two bottles of wine between the nine of them for the entire evening. That's less than a glass and a half each assuming they had drunk the entire lot by ten.

They did not leave the children to their own devices, they left them fast asleep.

They did not commit neglect. The attorney general of Portugal states they did not commit neglect under Portuguese law. Under English law they did not commit neglect as the children were asleep in bed, the parents were only fifty yards away and were checked every twenty minutes. This would class as adequete supervision. This was their own version of a listening service, these services continue to be used across Europe and no one has been prosecuted for using them. There have been no calls to prosecute other families who have done similar things, such as the Needham's who let their one year old grandson play unsupervised in a building area that was not enclosed. They didn't do anything wrong.

The McCann's did not ruin his career. He did that himself, and its more down to the fact he got a criminal conviction and showed up Portugal in amnesty internationals report on torture.

The McCann's did not ruin him financially, he ruined himself aided by not paying his tax bill, stealing from his family, unsuccessfully suing people for defamation and having to pay his own costs as well as the courts.

He did not just voice his opinion as an ordinary citizen. The judge said he used his position as a policeman to state his speculation as fact. His co defendants admitted amaral invented things for the book.

He has no grounds for suing the McCanns. He cannot sue them for suing him. He cannot sue them for neglect as a) they have been cleared of neglect and b) he would not be the victim as the McCann's have no duty of care to the police investigating the disappearence. If I trip up and break my leg and my doctor screws up and the leg can't be repaired he can't then sue me for tripping up if his failure wrecks his career. What else can he sue them for as they have been cleared of any wrong doing and even if they hadn't he would not be classed as victim. As a policeman it's his job so he can't sue, so that leaves him suing for their actions towards him as a citizen which is only to do with his book and as I said before he can't sue them for suing him.

He's just trying to big it up like a typical bully.

Amaral has them on the one hand drunk out of their heads the next conducting a brillant plan in five minutes that confounds even a great mind such as himself. OK he's a fool, but I hardly think even he could fail to spot a body that had been buried by someone drunk.

But seriously if he wants to sue someone how about during those who stole his book and documentary and plasted it all over the internet. Or those who told him British people were declared dead after seven years. Or those that told him ward of the court status meant the McCann's couldn't represent Madeleine in court. Or those that told people they were collecting money to help him then tried to get the money by bullying and deception and made him look really bad. Every one of these has cost him money and made him look foolish and in the last case particularly nasty.

With luck he will find a No Win no Fee lawyer, if they are legal in Portugal.
If not, he may be able to start the process himself, as a litigant in person.
He has a doctorate, so should be able to con a few pages of a law text book.

I found out about the verdict through a friend who called me telling me about the news on the radio. I immediately called my lawyer, but he hadn’t been notified and the verdict was not in the process. It’s sad, but my lawyer could only access the sentence, that afternoon, because a British journalist sent it to him by e-mail.

Gobilina » Sat May 16, 2015 1:04 am
Is it just me or are these the words of the anti movements well rehearsed script?...

"As for feeling wronged… What do you think? I can only ask if those who, for more than five nights, left their three children, aged three and two, to their own devices in a house within an unknown space, subjecting them to a thousand dangers, while they were partying with friends – not to mention the amounts of alcohol that was ingested on those occasions -, still has the right to be compensated. They practiced a crime of exposing and abandoning defenceless children and they weren’t even accused of that fact. Looking at our criminal legislation, at the English child protection legislation and at cases that recently happened with British subjects in the Algarve, after drunken nights, all that I can say is that the McCann couple is primarily responsible for their daughter’s disappearance. She only disappeared because they neglected her guard and, as parents, they were obliged to it. It is a fact that they lost their daughter, but that doesn’t give them the right to sue anyone or to be compensated."

Key words that would NOT be used by a copper post libel verdict: subjecting the children to a thousand dangers; the crime of abandonment? ( please, it says the opposite of this in the files)
" they werent even accused of that fact"...
I bet a thousand pounds Amaral had nothing to do with that article.

Chinagirl » Sat May 16, 2015 5:44 am
The entire premise of Amaral's book, reflected in the very title, is that the McCann parents caused their daughter's death, hid her body, and faked an abduction. Yet now he is trying to claim that her "disappearance" was caused through their neglect and abandonment of their children! So which is it - is she dead and the corpse hidden ("occulted" which is the weird word the Portuguese translators used), following which the parents simulated an abduction, or was she abducted by person(s) unknown? He can't have it both ways.

scoobydoo » Sat May 16, 2015 7:49 am
I don't think he has read up on English legislation, but he will have believed any old crap the antis feed him. The fact is that being fifty yards away from a sleeping child for twenty minutes at a time is not neglect in England. Even the antis haven't been able to come up with the distance and time they think should be illegal. Certain antis will have presented themselves as experts and misled him into thinking it was neglect in the UK, ward of court status was something used a lot by social services and prevented parents from representing their child in court and anyone could declare a person dead after seven years.

Truthiness2 » Sat May 16, 2015 9:29 am
I think Bennett and all the other misfits were compiling their 'counter arguments' to the Judge's verdict within minutes, and inundating whichever unfortunate person is his lawyer at the moment with reams of reasons why Amoral is right and the judge is wrong.

It's all there - the 'neglect 'mantra; the 'partying with their friends' mantra; the 'if you don't stop this now others will do it' mantra; the 'my 'uman rights supersede' everything' mantra; the 'free speech' (but only for me) mantra; the 'Mighty British forcing its will on poor, weak Portugal' mantra; the 'the twins will turn on their parents when they're old enough' mantra' the 'I was a lowly, humble, honest Dixon of Dock Green policeman just doing me job, g'vnor' mantra; the 'martyr' mantra; the 'I've only got one pair of underpants and piece of garden string to my name' mantra; the 'the judge must be in on it' mantra.

urcrazy:  Natasha Dunn of the Portugal Resident drags her digital rag further into the mire......not content with joining a hate forum ( Yes you did HarryLime even if you later 'forgot'about it) she has then been publicly high-fiving Leanne Baulch on twitter.

All most unseemly for a (cough) 'impartial journalist'.

honestbroker1: I'm not sure it's a foregone conclusion that Amaral will be granted an appeal.

He has an automatic right to apply.

But particularly if (as I think) Amaral conceded what possible grounds could he have for appeal?

The McCanns have accepted a settlement figure much lower than that initially sought.

And Amaral himself appears to have abandoned the contention of his book and video that the McCanns caused Madeleine's death, covered up the "fact" of her death, and launched a fraudulent fund in her name.

He is now saying that the McCanns were negligent or remiss in duty of care.

RETURN OF THE KING ‏@hondo1650 4h4 hours ago
Now why would team #mccann need to freeze t assets of one man Goncalo Amaral just wanting to help get answers to a missing child? SUSPICIOUS

Truthiness2: I can't see how he can appeal against any of that?

He can't change the date the book was published.

He can't hide the fact he was a member of the PJ.

He can't pretend he didn't break judicial secrecy.

He can't pretend the McCanns have been charged with, let alone found guilty of any crime.

He can't pretend he didn't made a mint out of the book, doc and forged a new career as the man who didn't find Madeleine.

He can't pretend he didn't accuse the couple of causing and covering up the death of their daughter, and setting up a fraudulent fund.

He seems to think that he can say what he likes. His right to accuse a couple of a crime and to make money from his theories trumps their rights and Madeleine's right to be considered alive and findable.

If he is now admitting she was abducted - then he put his 'honour' and need to make money above finding the person or persons that abducted her.

He convinced a nation that he was right, and not to bother looking for Madeleine or the person who took her.

That person is still out there, thanking their lucky stars for Amoral and his bloody 'honour

Re: interview with G.A - 15/05/15
Post TheTruthWillOut Today at 6:32 pm

What is really odd to me though is why Mr Amaral appears to be completely on his own in Portugal. Is that deliberate or that he just doesn't really have the support there?

He even states in his latest interview that he's cut ties with various organisations and states he's an "outsider".

If he does have a lot of public support in Portugal, I'd like to hear that drum a bit more like we seem to have here.

urcrazy » Mon May 18, 2015 6:33 am
Comparing himself to murdered journalists is about as pathetic as he can get, to be honest.

His financial and legal problems predate Madeleine's disappearance by several years. His book about his abject failure to find her before the trail went cold was supposed to solve those problems by raking in oodles of lovely dosh while attempting to restore some of his reputation. It almost worked too, despite him having stood trial for the Cipriano torture affair in the meantime.

The surprise is that so many Portuguese, despite being children of the revolution, are still inclined to support the fists-first methods of an old PJ cadre who never really understood that modern policing requires them to forgo beating suspects, lying to them about the evidence, and using the media as a deliberate weapon to turn public opinion when the facts aren't strong enough on their own.

It doesn't really surprise me that so many of the 'alternative' crowd here have joined in, despite professing to be achingly right-on about everything. I've discovered over the last few years just what a total sham that all is. They are by and large a very illiberal bunch indeed, who believe foolish things and seem to think they can dispense with the need for a trial by one's peers all together. They happily make common cause with very extreme right wingers and even fascists when it suits them too.

What a strange bunch this lot are, all in defence of a whingeing, self pitying failure.

honestbroker1 » Mon May 18, 2015 6:38 am

“With my book I did not defame, nor did I have the intention to defame anyone, but merely to report what happened during the first five months of the investigation thus replying to the attacks against my good name and my professional dignity.”

That's a very large part of his problem.

His book bears only a passing resemblance to what happened during the first 5 months of the investigation, with much of the (invented) material, outright lies that lower the reputation of the McCanns.

That's why he's in the pickle he's in.

1. It is intolerable that anyone accused of libel should have to wait nearly 6 years from the date of service of a writ (June 2009 in this case) for a verdict 2. The verdict by the Lisbon court last month was perverse. Both the Portuguese Appeal Court (October 2010) and the Portuguese Supreme Court (March 2011) held that Dr Amaral's book was a legitimate use of his right to freedom of expression, under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and as a result they allowed his book to be sold, overturning an earlier ban. The Lisbon court should have followed their decisions  

3. Dr Amaral has good prospects for success in his appeal, given the previous Appeal & Supreme Court decisions 4. 99% of his book is based on information in the files of the Portuguese Police

Article 10 makes clear that each European country will have laws that to some degree curtail freedom of expression in some way, “the protection of the reputation and rights of others”. In short, you have no right to expose someone to substantial hatred and ridicule or anything that’s grossly offensive.

I hope that the money raised by this appeal will enable him to afford a good quality and influential lawyer