Brazilian court ends defamation case against journalist Luan Araújo

On 15 June 2026 a judge of São Paulo’s Juizado Especial Criminal, José Fernando Steinberg, declared the penalty extinguished and archived the criminal defamation case against journalist Luan Araújo. The case stemmed from a July 2023 complaint by former federal deputy Carla Zambelli after Araújo published a critical article about her. Araújo had been sentenced to a fine of R$ 2,216.30 for injuria and defamation; failure to pay led the court to convert the sanction into an open‑regime imprisonment in early June. A fundraising campaign raised more than R$ 42,000, allowing Araújo to settle the debt. With the fine paid in full, the judge ruled the punishment fulfilled and closed the action. Zambelli, who was previously pursued with a firearm by the journalist during the 2022 election campaign, has been convicted by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court to five years and three months for illegal weapon possession and illegal restraint, and earlier received a ten‑year sentence for hacking the National Justice Council’s system. She fled to Italy, where Italian courts have denied Brazil’s extradition requests.