Obstetrician was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison. He was free after paying bail for racial insults committed against a public servant

Obstetrician Luís Leite, resident of Itabuna, in the south of Bahia, was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison for committing a crime of racial insult. He was taken, this Friday (25), to the municipality’s penal complex. The information is from TV Bahia.

According to the lawsuit, doctor Luiz Leite stated that a clinic employee, who is a black woman, was beautiful “because she had white blood.”

The doctor was free after having paid bail of R$14,000 after being arrested in the act in February this year. He committed the crime, equated to the crime of racism, against an auditor who provided services for the State Secretary of Health at the Otaciana Pinto Maternity Hospital, the same clinic where Luís worked.

Still according to TV Bahia, now with the crime final, by sentence of judge Eros Cavalcanti, the doctor is in prison, without the right to appeal.

Racial insult is a crime that consists of offending a person in a targeted way, based on characteristics such as race, color, ethnicity, religion or origin. The crime is provided for in article 140, item 3, of the Brazilian Penal Code.

As of Law 14,532/2023, published in January last year, the crime of racial insult was equated to the crime of racism. As a result, the penalty became more severe with imprisonment for two to five years, in addition to a fine. Today, there is no longer any bail and the crime is imprescriptible.