Hacker who led to Lula da Silva’s release from jail sentenced to 20 years in prison

Brazilian hacker Walter Delgatti Neto, known as “Hacker da Vasa Jato” for many years after exposing the messages exchanged between members of Operation Lava Jato that eventually led to the release of current President Lula da Silva from prison, was sentenced to 20 years and one year in prison. month due to this action. Delgatti is currently under preventive detention but has been charged with tampering with the website of the CNJ, the National Council of Justice, which oversees all of Brazil’s justice system.

In 2019, Delgatti hacked into the cell phones of dozens of officials associated with the anti-corruption operation Lava Hato, including prosecutors and public prosecutors of the Federal State Ministry, inspectors of the Federal Police and the head of the operation himself, former judge Sergio Moro, who in 2017 sentenced Lula to prison imprisonment, but in the same year he had already left the judiciary and was Minister of Justice in the government of Jair Bolsonaro. The leaked conversations and messages revealed that Moro and the operation’s then chief prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, joined forces and falsified evidence to incriminate and convict suspected businessmen and politicians, including Lulu da Silva, which is considered a crime under the country’s law. .

Based on these reports, leaked by Delgatti and widely reproduced in the press, the Federal Supreme Court annulled the trials conducted by Sergio Moro under Lava Jato, finding him biased and incompetent to hear cases. After the sentences were overturned by this decision, Lula, who had already been imprisoned in southern Brazil for 580 days, was released, his political rights were restored, and he ran again for the Brazilian presidency in last October’s elections, being elected to the presidency of Brazil. his third term.

Now, four years after the Waza Hato scandal, Judge Ricardo Augusto Soares Leite of the 10th Federal Court of Brasilia found Delgatti guilty of tampering with electronic equipment and embezzling federal correspondence (for disclosing messages found on mobile phones). ) and participation in a criminal organization, for the help of other people sentenced to less severe punishments. Delgatti’s sentence is controversial, both because the punishment is considered excessive for a non-violent crime, and because it came at a time when the hacker was once again being criticized by the press, public opinion, and the political class as a hero of sorts for that he revealed actions and conversations that were highly incriminating to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Last week, while testifying to a congressional committee of inquiry that is investigating attacks on democracy, Delgatti made pompous statements about the former president. Among them is that Bolsonaro last year, in the election year, wanted to hire him to falsify electronic ballot boxes and thus justify the interference of the then head of state in electoral justice, and, in addition, that Bolsonaro sent him to the ministry. The Ministry of Defense, where, according to the hacker, at the time he met with the highest military command in order to destabilize the electoral process.