A court in Portugal temporarily released the neo-Nazi mario machado of the obligation to report every 15 days to a police station after he offered to travel to Ukraine “in order to provide humanitarian aid” and fight alongside the Ukrainian troops. The judicial decision that was harshly criticized by anti-racist militants.
The man had to appear every 15 days before the country’s authorities after being arrested in November 2021 for illegal possession of weapons, racial discrimination, and hate speech and incitement.
From this Friday, based on the decision of a judge of the Central Court of Criminal Investigation of Portugal, Machado will be exempt from this obligation, for the duration of your stay abroad“in view of the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and the purposes invoked by the defendant for his claim.”
According to his lawyer, Machado will leave for the Slavic nation with a group of 20 Portuguese and Brazilians to provide humanitarian aid and, if necessary, fight alongside Ukrainian troops.
“Justice has legitimized a Nazi”
The SOS Racismo association condemned the decision of the Portuguese court by assuring that Machado “He led and participated in various far-right organizations responsible for countless crimes.”
“All this is duly documented. With hatred and blood,” the organization repudiated in a statement.
“When a judge considers that, in view of all this, Mario Machado is an altruistic humanist who can be exempted from exercising his obligations to, according to the defendant, go to Ukraine to provide humanitarian aid and, if necessary, fight together with ukrainian troops, we must be very worried“, added the association.
“Mario Machado did not offer to help war victims: he has never done so for any conflict, from Syria to Iraq, from Palestine to Afghanistan. Mario Machado offers to meet a group of Nazis and avoid responding to justice“, affirmed the organization, denouncing that with this decision “justice has legitimized a Nazi”.
Machado is the founder of the neo-Nazi organizations National Front and Nova Ordem Social and is linked to several far-right organizations, including the Portuguese branch of the neo-Nazi skinhead association Hammerskin Nation. In 1997, he was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for the involvement in a homicide. In 2012, moreover, he received an effective prison sentence for racial discrimination, possession of a weapon and threat to physical integrity.