Walter Delgatti Neto, 30, who told the Federal Police that he hacked Telegram accounts from Lava Jato prosecutors and forwarded messages to The Intercept Brazil, told Folha he did not think he would be arrested because in his opinion he had not committed a crime.
"I used my technical background to access public information online ... I was amazed at its content and made a small part of the collection public domain. Technically, I had no difficulty accessing the information …," he said in the written report.
Delgatti is suspected of perpetrating criminal organization crimes and "hacking into someone else's computer device, whether or not connected to the computer network, by improper breach of a security mechanism and to obtain, tampering with or destroying data or information without express or unauthorized authorization holder." The penalty is from 3 months to 1 year in prison.
He denied saying that he would sell the messages to the PT.
The suspect was in his second year of law at a private college in Ribeirão Preto (SP) when he was arrested.
Delgatti is one of four arrested by the PF in July on suspicion of involvement in hacking. He granted his first written interview after the federal court denied Folha's request to interview him in prison.
Delgatti reaffirms that he has not modified the messages passed to Intercept. "I didn't edit or change any content."
He is imprisoned in Papuda, Brasilia, in block F, wing G, even where famous politicians like former minister Geddel Vieira Lima (MDB-BA) and former senator Luiz Estevão are located.
According to Delgatti, he handed the material to journalist Glenn Greenwald spontaneously, for free and anonymously. The PF investigates whether more people participated in the app invasion and whether there were clients and payments.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon