Public service Judge awards Brazil's ex-president Bolsonaro compensation

The Brazilian state must pay compensation to the radical right-wing ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. This comes after his successor publicly accused him of stealing furniture from the presidential residence.

In a ruling published on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle to pay the equivalent of 2,400 euros in compensation for the "moral damage".

The judge also ordered the presidential office to publish a counterstatement. Shortly after moving back into the Alvorada Palace in Brasília in February 2023, the left-wing head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused ex-President Bolsonaro of taking more than 260 items with him when he cleared out, including "the bed".

The Bolsonaro couple explained that they had preferred to furnish the residence to their own taste during Bolsonaro's time in office and had stored the publicly owned furniture. The authority responsible for the legal protection of the state told the AFP news agency that it would appeal against the ruling.

SDA