A court has ordered the Brazilian state to pay far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro some $2,600 in damages after his successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, publicly accused him of taking furniture from the presidential residence.
A federal judge ordered Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle to 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 Tuesday in a case brought by the Bolsonaros.
Shortly after moving back into the palace in Brasilia in February 2023, 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 2019-2022 term.
Lula knows the palace well, having lived there during his first presidency (2003-2010) with his late wife Marisa Leticia.
His Workers’ Party (PT) occupied the sleek white Oscar Niemeyer-designed building from 2003 to 2016, when his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached.
The state legal office told AFP it would appeal Tuesday’s ruling.
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