Lula’s case files remanded but Lava-Jato judge maintains freeze on the ex-president’s assets

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Curitiba’s 13th Federal Court Chief Judge Luiz Antonio Bonat has referred the 4 Lava-Jato lawsuits against ex-president Lula to the Federal District Court, but decided to maintain the former president’s assets frozen.

The referral to the Federal District Court attends Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Edson Fachin’s decision, who last Monday overturned the former president’s convictions handed down by Curitiba’s 13th Federal Court.

In maintaining the asset freeze, Bonat said that the measures were taken in separate proceedings from the criminal lawsuits against the ex-president to be referred to Brasilia: the Guarujá triplex, the Atibaia farm, donations to the Lula Institute and its headquarters.

“The rulings in which, at the request of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), the freezing of assets of the accused were decided, were not issued within the criminal proceedings, but rather as precautionary measures, ancillary to the respective criminal proceedings,” Bonat said in the order.

The magistrate also pointed out that “based on Fachin’s decision strict limits,” he would maintain the “freeze, leaving it to the competent court to analyze the validity of the rulings that authorized the precautionary restrictions.”

Fachin’s individual ruling will be analyzed by the full STF – but the trial has not yet been scheduled by the Chief Justice Luiz Fux.

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