‘OK in the Bible’ domestic violence Judge to be disciplined

Judge Neto Moura is to be punished for suspending a domestic violence sentence as ‘the woman had a lover.’

Justifying his sentence with quotes from the Bible, the out-of-touch judge will be subject to disciplinary action.

The Superior Council of Magistracy considers that the “expressions and judgments” used by Joaquim Neto de Moura in a ruling on domestic violence, constitute a disciplinary infraction.

In a session today, the judges decided, with only eight votes in favour and seven against, that a “disciplinary procedure” should be instituted.

The case dates back to October 2017, when a judgment handed down by the judge in the Court of Appeal in Porto, eased the sentence imposed on a man who violently attacked the woman, because she had a lover.

In the original judgment, co-signed by the magistrate Maria Luísa Arantes, several references are made to the Bible and to the old Penal Code of 1886.

The judgement read that, “there are societies in which the adulterous woman is stoned to death”, that adultery of the woman is “a very serious attack on the honour and dignity of man.”

The judge decided that the violence suffered was all the woman’s fault as she was the one who had erred from the righteous path of matrimonial fidelity.

The wife of the defendant was attacked with a nail-spiked club in 2015 by her then husband and also by her former lover.

The judges’ summary went further and included a character assassination of the victim, adding that “a woman committing adultery is a false, hypocritical, dishonest, disloyal, futile, immoral person. In short, she lacks moral probity. It is not surprising that she resorts to deception, farce, lies to hide her disloyalty,” the inference being that it was OK for the husband to assault her.

Since 2015, Judge Neto Moura has continued to judge cases of domestic violence.

Judge Neto Moura