Nationalist loses bid for appeal against jail term

Nationalist Mário Machado have lost his bid to appeal against the conviction he received for incitement to hatred and violence. The man who has had a checkered past with judicial authorities has said he wants to apply for political asylum to the United States. No more has been heard of this endeavour – and with today’s news, coming from the Constitutional Court (that it refused even to consider the appeal), it may well be that Machado has to bite the bullet and report to “serve his sentence” (two years and 10 months). Before that, he is said to be studying the possibility, with his lawyer, of appealing to the court’s plenary to “demand” that it consider his appeal.