# Brazil court orders Bolsonaro and state to pay damages over racist remarks
Event date: 2025-09-16
A Brazilian state appeals court has ordered former president Jair Bolsonaro and the federal government to pay R$1 million each in collective moral damages over remarks judges ruled were racist.
The case focused on comments Bolsonaro made in 2021, while still in office, to a Black supporter with an afro hairstyle. According to the court’s description, Bolsonaro compared the man’s hair to a “breeding ground for cockroaches” and also suggested he had lice. Judges said those remarks were not harmless jokes and instead amounted to what they called “recreational racism.”
The ruling came from the federal court of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. In its reasoning, the court said the comments linked Black hair to dirt and insects associated with disgust, harming the dignity of Black people and reinforcing stereotypes of inferiority. One of the judges, Roger Raupp Rios, said the fact that the remarks were made by a sitting president increased their seriousness.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers argued there had been no intention to cause racial offence and noted that the supporter had publicly said he was not offended. The court rejected that defence and said the remarks were more than personal banter. The judges also made clear the comments were part of a broader pattern, citing three separate remarks made during livestreams with supporters outside the presidential palace in 2021.
The ruling is notable for arriving less than a week after Bolsonaro was sentenced in a separate case to 27 years and three months in prison for leading an attempted coup to overturn the result of the 2022 election. That conviction was not part of the racism case, but it adds to the former president’s mounting legal pressure.
Alongside Bolsonaro, the Brazilian government was also ordered to pay the damages. The fine was lower than the R$10 million prosecutors had requested, but the case still gives judicial force to a public finding that the remarks were discriminatory. Both sides may still appeal.
Bolsonaro remains under house arrest in Brasília in a separate matter linked to alleged attempts to intimidate supreme court justices overseeing the coup case. He has not commented on the racism ruling because he is barred by court order from using social media, according to the Guardian report.
The decision underscores how Brazilian courts are treating Bolsonaro’s public language not as isolated political provocation but as conduct with legal and social consequences. It also adds another layer to a broader confrontation between the former president and the judiciary.
