Lula's defense appeals to Supreme Court over justice's ruling
Supreme Court justice Rosa Weber
The defense of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva filed an appeal Tuesday (Mar. 8) against a decision by Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber, who rejected a request to suspend an investigation on two properties allegedly owned by Lula in São Paulo state. The former president is suspected of alleged impropriety around buying a share in a housing cooperative for a triplex apartment in the beach city of Guarujá and making improvements to a country house he has been found to have regularly visited in Atibaia.
In their appeal, Lula's lawyers ask the court to suspend Justice Weber's decision until the court decides who should be responsible for the investigation on Lula—the Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPF) as part of the wider Operation Car Wash corruption case, or the State Prosecutor's Office of São Paulo (MPSP). The former president is under probe by both prosecuting offices over the same issues.
In her ruling of last week, Justice Weber held there were no “indisputable illegalities in the investigations” to suspend them and maintained the MPSP and the MPF are investigating the “same facts from different perspectives.”
But the former president's counsel is challenging the jurisdiction of the Paraná chapter of the MPF over the investigation (Paraná is the state where Operation Car Wash case is held), because it revolves around real estate in São Paulo state. According to the defense, this is a conflict of jurisdiction. Moreover, they claim that the Operation Car Wash task force has been overly intrusive and arbitrary in dealing with the former president.
Illegal seizures
The former president's relatives' lawyers filed an appeal Tuesday (4) in which they complained about the search and seizure raids carried out by Federal Police last Friday (4) as part of stage 24 of Operation Car Wash, dubbed Operation Aletheia, when Lula was temporarily detained for questioning.
The lawyers claim Federal Police seized personal property of Lula's daughters', including laptops, mobile phones, and tablet computers, which they say were not the target of the search warrants issued by Federal Judge Sérgio Moro. They are asking the judge to order the return of these items.
In addition to the raids at Lula's relatives' homes, the lawyers are challenging the Federal Police action at Lula Institute and at the headquarters of companies owned by one of Lula's sons. According to their motion, these companies were not covered by the warrants. In the case of Instituto Lula, the lawyers argue that the Federal Police officers changed computer PIN's and this rendered the institute staff unable to work.
*With additional reporting by André Richter.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Lula's defense appeals to Supreme Court over justice's ruling
