Dilma Says Lula Is Being Persecuted After Accounts Were Frozen

Brazil's former President Dilma Rouseff has criticized the decision to freeze the bank accounts of her predecessor, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

On her Twitter account, Rouseff said the order by Judge Sergio Moro amounted to judicial persecution.

Moro ordered the freezing of Lula's assets on Wednesday, blocking his bank accounts and barring him from using three apartments, a piece of land and two cars linked to him.

Rousseff tweeted that "hijacking" a property lived in by Lula and his family was a "new injustice".

She also said it was an arbitrary ruling, carried out by the "justice of the enemy". Rouseff then reiterated her support for the former Brazilian leader.

On July 12, Judge Moro, who has been spearheading Brazil's sprawling corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash, found Lula guilty of accepting bribes from the engineering firm OAS in the form of a beachfront apartment in Guaruja.

Moro said the apartment was worth a total of US$691,000, including an extensive renovation undertaken to Lula and his late wife Marisa Leticia's specifications.

The former president denies any wrongdoing and remains free pending a decision on his appeal.

His defense has called the graft conviction politically motivated and a ploy to sideline him ahead of next year's presidential election.