São Paulo, Brazil – A São Paulo court on Tuesday sentenced Brazilian comedian Léo Lins, 42, to eight years and three months in prison for charges of defamation and hate speech, following a criminal case brought by federal prosecutors in 2023.
The charges stemmed from a stand-up comedy performance in Curitiba in 2022, in which Lins targeted several minority and vulnerable groups. The show was later posted on YouTube, where it quickly went viral.
Before a crowd of roughly 4,000 people, Lins made jokes targeting elderly people, Black and Indigenous Brazilians, people with HIV, the LGBTQ+ community, evangelical Christians, Jews, people with disabilities — and even referenced pedophilia in his routine.
The video garnered over 3 million views and sparked a wave of public backlash for what critics described as offensive and discriminatory content. In May 2023, a court ordered YouTube to take the video down.
Among the jokes included in the performance were statements such as:
- “I’m fat! I love eating and hate working out. How am I going to lose weight? Get AIDS! Don’t you love eating everything? Go sleep with unprotected gay men! It’ll work eventually!”
- “I’m totally against pedophilia — I’m more in favor of incest. If you’re going to abuse a child, abuse your own. What’s he going to do? Tell his dad?”
- “I saw a poll online asking: ‘What do you say right after sex?’ I replied: ‘Don’t tell your mom and I’ll get you a doll.’”
- “Prejudice, to me, is a primitive thing that shouldn’t exist anymore. Just like Indigenous people. Enough already.”
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges under two key Brazilian laws related to discrimination and hate crimes: Law No. 7.716/1989 and Law No. 13.146/2015.
Law 7.716/1989, commonly referred to as the Anti-Racism Law, criminalizes the practice, incitement, or promotion of discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. It establishes a basic prison sentence of two to five years, with increased penalties if the offense occurs during a public cultural or artistic event meant for entertainment and disseminated via media platforms.
Law 13.146/2015, known as the Statute of Persons with Disabilities, criminalizes acts of discrimination against individuals on the basis of disability. The base sentence ranges from one to three years in prison, with enhancements up to five years if the offense is committed through media channels.
Racism has been criminalized since the 1950s in Brazil, a country where 10% of the population identifies as fully Black, while over 50% identify as afro-descendant. Around 0.8% of the population identifies as Indigenous.
Freedom House, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that monitors democracy around the world, noted that “Although people are rarely charged or imprisoned for racist or discriminatory speech, Brazilian law establishes penalties ranging from two to five years in prison for practicing or inciting discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion in the media or other publications.”
Judge Bárbara de Lima Iseppi ruled that Lins’ remarks went beyond the boundaries of free speech and constituted hate speech. In her decision, she emphasized that artistic expression does not grant immunity from accountability when it incites prejudice or discrimination.
In a statement, Lins’s legal team described the court’s decision as a threat to freedom of speech, framing it as an attempt to “criminalize comedy.” His attorneys said they plan to appeal the ruling. Lins, who remains free during the appeals process, addressed his followers in a video posted Thursday.
“It seems like people have lost the ability to interpret the obvious,” he said. “We’re living through one of the biggest epidemics of our time: rational blindness. Judgments are now based entirely on emotion — no one listens anymore, they only want to impose their own truth.”
Lins is widely recognized in Brazil’s comedy scene for his politically incorrect, often abrasive humor. He has a substantial online following, with over 3 million followers on Instagram and more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers.
His conviction has drawn expressions of solidarity from fellow comedians, some of whom see the case as setting a dangerous precedent for artistic freedom in Brazil.
Comedian and television host Danilo Gentili said, “What was comedian Leo Lins’ crime? Telling jokes in a comedy show.”
Featured image: Comedian Léo Lins sentenced to 8 years in prison (photo credit: @leolins via Instagram)
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