MOSCOW, July 23 (RAPSI) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held Tuesday that Portugal breached the rights of journalist Afonso Joaquim Sampaio e Paiva de Melo to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (Convention).

Sampaio formerly served as a press attaché for Portugal’s national football team. In a book published in 2006, he criticized the chairman of the club without explicitly mentioning his name. Among other things, he referred to the chairman as the team’s “sworn enemy,” and as the “national champion of prosecutions in Portuguese football.”

In 2009, he was convicted of defamation and ordered to pay a fine and damages.

Sampaio then turned to the ECHR, claiming that the defamation conviction constituted a breach of his article 10 free expression rights.

Finding in his favor, the ECHR held that Sampaio should receive EUR 2,600 in pecuniary damages, EUR 3,250 in non-pecuniary damages, and EUR 2,396 in costs and expenses.