Brasilia: The second chamber of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil approved to unblock the assets of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, seized within the framework of processes related to the now-deactivated Lava Jato judicial operation, Prensa Latina publishes.
By three votes to one, the decision stems from the annulment, established by Minister Edson Fachin (of the STF) in March, of all Lula’s convictions in Lava Jato.
Fachin decided that the Federal Justice of the southern city of Curitiba had no formal jurisdiction to judge the actions against the founder of the Workers’ Party and, with this, annulled the trials.
Such decision was confirmed by the STF plenary session in April.
The processes that were underway in the state of Paraná on the cases of the Guarujá triplex apartment, the Atibaia site, the donations to the Lula Institute and the Lula Institute headquarters were sent to the Federal District Justice and then Lula’s defense requested that the assets blocked in these processes will be released.
But in May, the Federal Justice of Paraná denied the request. At the time, federal judge Luiz Antonio Bonat assessed that the revocation depended on the manifestation of Fachin, Lava Jato rapporteur in the Supreme Court.
Now in court, Fachin voted in favor of maintaining the asset blockade, but was defeated because Ministers Ricardo Lewandowski, Gilmar Mendes and Nunes Marques did so against it.
Lewandowski argued that the Curitiba Federal Court could not make any further value judgment on them, including on the maintenance of the blockade of the assets of the complainant Lula.
“This new decision of the STF is a consequence of the recognition of the nullity of the processes involving former president Lula due to the incompetence and suspicion (of partiality) of former judge Sergio Moro,” said the former president’s defense in a statement.
He stressed that the Curitiba court “should have authorized the withdrawal a long time ago, but preferred, once again, to disregard the Supreme Court’s decision to harm Lula.”