Seeks Apology From Journalist And Halt To 'Damaging Behavior'

The Association of Relatives and Friends of Gol's Flight 1907 Victims confirmed this weekend that Rosane Gutjhar, widow of one of the victims of the September 2006 downing of Gol flight 1907, filed suit for damages for pain and suffering against New York Times journalist Joe Sharkey.

The lawsuit was filed in October 2008, as ANN reported. Last week, Judge Dr. Humberto G. Brito, of Curitiba's 18th Civil Office, released the letter rogatory -- a request assistance from a foreign court -- against the journalist. The letter is with a sworn translator and later it will go to the Justice Department and Itamaraty (Foreign Relations) for its issuance to the United States.

According to the lawsuit, Sharkey -- a passenger in the Legacy 600 that collided with the Gol Linhas Aéreas' Boeing 737-800 -- "with great influence in the media, began a campaign in his blog in favor of the jet's pilots with the objective to move his countrymen in order to prevent the pilots' return to Brazil."

Pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino were detained in Brazil until December 2006, virtual prisoners in a Rio de Janeiro hotel for more than two months due to local police and media that were quick to blame the surviving pilots for the accident. A Brazilian judge held the mens' passports, preventing them from legally leaving the country.

Sharkey was among the most vocal -- but far from only -- proponents calling for the men to be released and allowed to return home, pending formal charges. According to Gutjhar, the journalist "began offending Brazilians indiscriminately, which prompted the widow to file suit seeking relief for pain and suffering."

In the petition filed by the widow's lawyers, Oscar Fleischfresser and Carla Fleischfresser, in the 18th lower civil court in Curitiba, there is a suggestion to take as a parameter for non-financial damages awarded, similar values to those that would apply to the journalist in his own country.

"This would be a way to halt, effectively, his illegal and damaging behavior, in detriment of the widow and all other Brazilian citizens. The other request is to have a judicial instruction for him to apologize to all the Brazilian citizens, through the same media used by him," concludes Fleischfresser.

We can't speak for Sharkey... but judging from his posted response to last week's release of the Brazilian air force report on the crash -- written by "a group of people who owe their paychecks to the military authority responsible for operating the very air-space in which the accident occurred," Sharkey wrote on his blog -- we boldly predict the Amazon will freeze before he apologizes.

FMI: http://joesharkeyat.blogspot.com/