Brasilia, September 27 (RHC)-- A Brazilian court has denied a new request by the defense of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to include the messages published by the Intercept news site, in the case of the Atibaia site in Sao Paulo.

In the decision, the eighth chamber of the Federal Regional Court of the Fourth Region, based in the southern city of Porto Alegre, followed a vote by Judge João Pedro Gebran Neto.  For the magistrate, the conversations leaked by The Intercept were obtained illegally, in private environments of the authorities, without judicial authorization and cannot be used as evidence.

On September 3, the same request was denied by Gebran's individual decision, but the lawyers of the former labor leader appealed.  Lula's defense demanded that messages confiscated in the so-called Federal Police Spoofing operation, completed in July, be attached to the case.

In the investigation, the FP arrested suspects who hacked cell phones from the authorities.

The dialogues, exchanged through the Telegram application, suggest an intimacy between the then judge Sérgio Moro and the accusation, commanded by prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, coordinator of Lava Jato, which compromises the impartiality of the decisions against the former unionist.

In February, the founder of the Workers' Party was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison in criminal proceedings for the reforms carried out at the Santa Bárbara estate in Atibaia, which was allegedly handed over as a bribe.

Lula has always declared his innocence and that he is the victim of judicial and political persecution that seeks to avoid his return to the presidency.