THE UN rejected calls for emergency action to be taken over the imprisonment of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva yesterday.

Mr Lula’s lawyers had submitted a petition to the UN human rights committee demanding an injunction against his imprisonment, but in dismissing the request spokeswoman Julia Gronnevet said the organisation would not grant “interim measures.”

She said: “It must be demonstrated that the state is irreparably violating the rights of the person and, based on the information that Lula has given the committee, he is not demonstrating a risk of suffering irreparable harm of that sort."

But she warned Brazil’s right-wing coup administration that “any act that impedes or frustrates the analysis of the committee" would be in breach of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

Ongoing investigations into Mr Lula’s larger case against his incarceration are expected to last up to a year.

Lula was handed a 12-year prison sentence on trumped-up corruption charges related to his alleged involvement in the Car Wash corruption scandal which engulfed politicians and business people.

He denies involvement and his lawyers and supporters claim he is the victim of a political smear campaign, with a form of “lawfare” being waged against the country’s most popular politician to stop him standing as a presidential candidate in October’s elections.

The former union leader lost his bid to stay out of prison while he appealed the decision, which lawyers argue violates his judicial rights.

Despite being held in Curitiba prison, Lula remains ahead in the polls — but authorities are likely to try to block him from standing.