Lula's defense team files new appeals at Brazil's court

With this, those lawyers intend to pave the way to file new appeals at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).

The fifth chamber of the STJ saw the case for the last time early February.

On the occasion, Judge Felix Fischer, rapporteur of the case, affirmed that Lula entered the court with 433 appeals, a figure the defense team challenges, and thus the lowering of the records and the passage of the court case were ordered.

The former president's legal team also questioned the decision by the fifth court, which rejected the use of the compromising messages attributed to former Judge Sergio Moro and the prosecutors of the Lava Jato operation, revealed by hackers and seized in July by the Federal Police in the so-called Operation Spoofing (usurpation).

The former president was accused of possession of a triplex apartment in the coastal city of Guaruja, in the state of Sao Paulo, allegedly received in exchange for benefiting the OAS construction firm.

Since the process starts, even in the first instance, Lula reaffirms his innocence and the defense team alleges that the apartment is not his, there is no evidence against the former president, who did not commit crimes before, during or after the mandate (2003-2011).