Antonio Tabet, Mauricio Meirelles and other humorists defend Leo Lins, convicted of discrimination

Antonio Tabet, Mauricio Meirelles, Fábio Rabin and other humorists spoke on Tuesday (3) against the conviction of Leo Lins.

The humorist, former member of the Danilo Gentili Program in SBT, was convicted and three months in prison for the crimes of Article 20 of the Racism Law (“to practice and incite discrimination or prejudice of race, color, ethnicity, religion or origin of the Article 88 of the Disabled Person Statute (” discrimination of person due to their disability “).

At X, Maurício Meirelles compared the conviction with the arrest of the singers Oruam and Poze of the squeegee: “No one should be arrested for their art,” he wrote. He later joked, “Want to know? I’ll stop making a joke and get in the red command.”

Antonio Tabet also used the X to speak out: “This is absurd here. One may not find the slightest fun or even hate Leo Lins’s jokes, but to condemn him to prison for them is insanity and a disservice. I hope this completely unreasonable decision will be reversed,” he wrote.

Fábio Rabin posted a video commenting on the conviction. “In the year 2000, when I didn’t even dream of being a comedian, a friend sent me a Nazi joke, I cursed him all that is name and that shook our friendship. Today I would never do what I did in the past, because I analyze the joke technique, if she is good, if she is bad,” said Rabin.

“There are people who use the joke negatively, to hurt the other, do hate speech. But when the guy is on stage doing a show for those who paid, he has poetic license to make those jokes,” he concluded.

The humorist Bruna Braga positioned herself in favor of the conviction. “Racism is a crime. Comedian was racist, will be arrested, we have to be against?”, Wrote in X. Bruna Braga is part of the cast of the series “No Corre” (Multishow).

Dignity of the human person

In addition to the arrest, in an initially closed regime, Lins must also pay a fine equivalent to 1,170 minimum wages (in the value of the time the show occurred) and compensation of R $ 303,600 for collective moral damages.

In the decision, justice understood that: “In the case of confrontation between the fundamental precept of freedom of expression and the principles of the dignity of the human person and legal equality, the latter must prevail.” It is possible to appeal to the sentence. The process runs at the 3rd Federal Criminal Court of São Paulo.

Remember the case

At the 2022 show, aired in full on YouTube, Leo Lins makes statements against blacks, the elderly, obese, HIV carriers, homosexuals, evangelicals, indigenous people, northeastern, Jews and people with disabilities. The video had over 3.3 million views on the platform.

In 2023, the State Court of São Paulo ordered the removal of the YouTube program after the State Prosecutor claim that the content was a “incitement to violence” and “disrespect for the dignity of minority and vulnerable groups.”

At the time, Fábio Porchat and Danilo Gentili criticized the decision of the court. Danilo responded ironically a comment from Porchat who said “what madness” about the measure. “The politically correct is a good thing, good, as you said a few times,” said the presenter. Neither manifested on Tuesday (3).