cannot believe it

I was indicted in mid-August. As I returned from vacation late that month I was surprised to find a letter by Ministério Público announcing that I had been indicted for insulting and slandering the director-general of the tax department.

For the first time in my life I had proof that the justice system works fast in this country. Actually, from April when I first testified at DIAP and was made an arguido (not by a judge or by an attorney, but by a clerical worker) until a formal accusation was produced by Ministério Público just four months had passed. The justice people were working in a hurry at this important case, as the notice of formal accusation was sent to me in mid-August when everybody in the country is on vacation.
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Precisely by that time the tax chief was giving an interview to newspaper Expresso. The interview was so long that it had to be published in two consecutive issues of the paper, in the first with front page honors. I was mentioned in both.

The whole idea of the interview was to pass a favourable image of the tax chief who would step down from his position in a few weeks´ time. At a given point, the journalist asked him if, after having been such a tough tax chief, taxpayers had ever protested or showed less respect for him. His answer was a categorical no, with one exception: economist Pedro Arroja. Regarding this taxpayer, though, he had already filled criminal charges against him.

The following week the interview was pursued in the paper´s magazine and my relationship with the tax chief was portrayed in the same light: I was an obvious irascible taxpayer who had ventured to harass an immaculate tax chief. A few pages later, I was portrayed by Expresso magazine as an obscure economist who had recently been expelled from a blog. In September, the tax chief left his job. In that very same week, Expresso threw a big party for him and made him "Manager of the Year". I recall to think at the time: "Oh, this is a rather unusual event indeed: here is a corporate taxpayer - Expresso - throwing a party for an allegedly tough tax boss".

Now, for the record, let me state that the weeks after the interview was published, I received several phone calls and e-mails from citizens in the country saying that they had been victims of tax abuses and some of them would be prepared to testify for me in court and against the tax boss.

What, then, might have led Expresso to put up such a scene regarding the tax chief, why that hurry to portray him in such favourable terms to the point of designating him the Manager of the Year as soon as he left his job? Why all this when it was widely known by the time - in part, from information provided by Expresso itself - that under his leadership the tax department had abused thousands of taxpayers in the country? Did Expresso, or any company of the group it belongs to, receive any tax favour from the former director-general? I simply cannot believe it.