Brazilian court spares far-right candidate from racism trial
Brazilian court spares far-right candidate from racism trial
Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press
Updated 7:41 pm CDT, Tuesday, September 11, 2018
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's top court on Tuesday spared leading presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro from having to stand trial for racism, less than a week after the far-right politician was injured in a knife attack during a campaign event.
A court panel voted 3-2 to drop a racism accusation against Bolsonaro, who leads polls ahead of October's election after Brazil's Workers' Party decided that it would not field imprisoned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as its candidate.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Bolsonaro had the right to voice disrespectful opinions toward blacks in a 2017 speech at a club in Rio de Janeiro. He also pointed out that Bolsonaro has immunity as a sitting lawmaker.
Bolsonaro said last year that members of rural settlements founded by the descendants of slaves, called "quilombolas," are "not good even to procreate." He also talked about the weight of those slave descendants using a measure that Brazilian farmers apply to animals.
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