Two men are arrested for using a Nazi symbol during the Shooting Festival in SC Military Police/ Reproduction The two men arrested for using Nazi symbols during an edition of Schutzenfest, the traditional Shooting Festival of Jaraguá do Sul, in the North of Santa Catarina, were acquitted by the Santa Catarina Court, the Court of Justice confirmed this Tuesday (16). The case was registered on November 9, 2024. At the time, police officers were approached after partygoers noticed that the men had brooches containing the Nazi swastika attached to typical German hats. There is an appeal. ✅ Click and follow the g1 SC channel on WhatsApp Two men are arrested for using a Nazi symbol during the Shooting Festival in SC 🔎 Schutzenfest is considered the "biggest shooter party in Brazil", according to the city hall. At the event, sports shooting enthusiasts wear typical German costumes while testing their aim at rifle ranges. They were arrested, at the time, based on paragraph 1 of article 20 of Law No. 7,716/89, which provides for a sentence of one to three years in prison for "practicing, inducing or inciting discrimination or prejudice based on race, color, ethnicity, religion or national origin". The police caught the incident and the Public Ministry of Santa Catarina (MPSC) filed a complaint, however, the men were acquitted in the first instance. Now on g1 The Public Prosecutor's Office appealed the sentence and, last week, the defendants were tried in the second degree, with the acquittal being maintained by a majority vote. What does the decision say In testimony, one of the men “considered that [the symbol] 'had fallen into disuse and no one would care'”. For the judge who voted to convict the defendants, the duo took the risk of propagating Nazi ideology, even if they thought that the symbol was no longer being used with that intuition and that no one would notice. "The symbolic minimization of Nazism [treating the swastika like a hat pin at a party] does not contradict the criminal nature: it accomplishes it. Nazism is renewed precisely through trivialization; the trivialization of the symbol is a propagation mechanism, not neutralization", argued the judge. However, the majority vote followed the rapporteur of the decision. According to the judge, no demonstrations, gestures, speeches or any behavior directed at the spread of Nazism were proven. The circumstance indicates that they did not act with a conscious intention to carry out the illegal act. "Therefore, in the present case, it appears that the evidence contained in the file is not sufficient to form a safe judgment about the intent in carrying out the conduct attributed to the defendants. Although there is evidence, it does not appear to be robust enough to eliminate substantial doubt about the specific purpose of Nazi ideological dissemination", said the rapporteur. The case can still be appealed to the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) or Federal Supreme Court (STF). VIDEOS: most watched g1 SC in the last 7 days