Brazil court awards damages to ex-leader Bolsonaro over stolen bed claims
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Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was accused by his successor of taking furniture from the presidential residence.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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RIO DE JANEIRO – A court has ordered the Brazilian state to pay far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro some US$2,600 (S$3,400) in damages after his successor, Mr Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, publicly accused him of taking furniture from the presidential residence.
A federal judge ordered that Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle be compensated for “moral damage” suffered as a result of the claims that they had stripped the Alvorada Palace of numerous objects.
The court also ordered the presidency to publish a retraction, according to a judgment seen on Sept 10 in a case brought by the Bolsonaros.
Shortly after moving back into the palace in Brasilia in February 2023, President Lula accused Bolsonaro of having taken more than 260 objects as he cleared out, even “the bed”.
The couple had said that they had put publicly owned furniture in storage, preferring to decorate the residence to their own taste during Bolsonaro’s 2019 to 2022 term.
Mr Lula knows the palace well, having lived there during his first presidency (2003 to 2010) with his late wife Marisa Leticia.
Mr Lula’s Workers’ Party occupied the sleek white Oscar Niemeyer-designed building from 2003 to 2016, when his handpicked successor, Ms Dilma Rousseff, was impeached.
The state legal office told AFP it would appeal against the Sept 10 ruling. AFP
