SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO: Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the controversial frontrunner in Brazil's October presidential election, ignored a deadline to surrender and start a 12-year prison sentence for corruption on Friday (Apr 6).

Holed up with thousands of cheering supporters in the metalworkers' union building in his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, the 72-year-old let the 5pm (2000 GMT) deadline pass without public comment.

The development further heated up the drama over attempts to put behind bars the veteran leftist, who ruled from 2003-2011 and leads in polls ahead of the elections.

He was ordered Thursday by Brazil's top anti-corruption judge, Sergio Moro, to surrender voluntarily to police and begin incarceration in the southern city of Curitiba.

Moro gave him 24 hours, saying the cell, a separate room with its own toilet, was ready, and that Lula would not be handcuffed - if he came quietly.

It was not clear what the next step would be. However, local media reported that Lula's lawyers were negotiating the surrender.

It would be impossible for police to arrest him by force without the likelihood of major crowd trouble.

Much of the day, Lula had been waiting in hope that the country's top appeals court, the Superior Tribunal of Justice, would temporarily suspend his arrest warrant. However, the petition was rejected shortly before the deadline expired.

Lula was convicted last year of taking a luxury apartment as a kickback from a big construction company. He lost a lower court appeal in January and saw his sentence increased from nine to 12 years.

But to his Workers' Party faithful, Lula is a victim of a right-wing plot to prevent him from returning to power.

The longer he remained holed up inside the union building, the bigger the crowd grew outside.

Renata Swiecik, an unemployed mother of four who had joined the human shield, urged Lula not to hand himself over.

"We are here to resist to the end. Lula will not be a prisoner in 2018, he'll be president and help the people once more," said Swiecik, 31.

Lula's imprisonment is being celebrated on the right and among prosecutors supporting the "Car Wash" probe, which has revealed systemic, high-level embezzlement and bribery throughout Brazilian business and politics over the last four years.

To them, Lula epitomizes Brazil's corruption-riddled elite. His conviction is the biggest "Car Wash" scalp by far.

"I want Lula in prison, I want a better future and with him in the leadership we won't have that," said Maura Moraes de Oliveira, 51, who works as a maid in Curitiba.

"Not only Lula should be locked up, but all the corrupt, a complete cleaning."

Operation "Car Wash" was named after the service station where agents initially investigated a minor money laundering scheme in 2014, before realizing that they'd stumbled on a gargantuan web of embezzlement and bribery at state oil company Petrobras and right through the political classes.

Lula, who grew up poor and with little formal education before becoming a trade union leader and politician, has long said he will go down fighting.

In theory, once someone has been convicted and lost a lower court appeal, he or she is barred from running for office under Brazil's clean-slate law.

Still, even in prison, Lula has the right to register as a candidate. It would then be up to the Superior Electoral Tribunal to rule on whether his candidacy could stand.

Although Lula would almost certainly be blocked, he could use the process to maintain his political influence.</s>Brazilians were mesmerized Friday evening as former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appeared to defy an arrest warrant and did not turn himself into police to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption.

Mr. da Silva had a theoretical deadline of 5 p.m. Sao Paulo time to present himself to federal police in the southern city of Curitiba, where federal judge Sergio Moro convicted him of corruption and money laundering last year.

But 5 p.m. came and went and the leftist leader remained inside the boxy glass headquarters of the national metalworkers’ union with which his improbable political career began, in a piece of riveting political theatre that played out into the night.

“What Lula is doing is a political move − what he wants from this scene is to be seen as beloved, a hero of the population,” said Daniel Falcao, a professor of electoral and constitutional law at the University of Sao Paulo.

There was also the suggestion that the former president was simply buying time: Late in the evening, his lawyers presented another 11th-hour petition to the Supreme Court, saying Mr. da Silva should not be jailed until another legal process concludes.

Prof. Falcao said that the order from Judge Moro that Brazilians interpreted as an arrest warrant, was in fact a sort of invitation, and he would now need to issue another compelling the state to take the former president into custody. Mr. da Silva’s lawyers were reported by local media to be negotiating the terms with police.

“Of course a strong political leader like Lula would use the opportunity to benefit politically,” Prof. Falcao said, adding that it was reasonable to expect this kind of posturing given that Judge Moro acted to issue the arrest invitation with unprecedented speed.

The judge ordered Mr. da Silva’s imprisonment just 22 minutes after the case was put up for processing, when Mr. da Silva lost a petition before the Supreme Court in the early hours of Thursday morning.

More than a thousand supporters of Mr. da Silva and his Workers’ Party spent the day waving red flags and chanting his old campaign slogans outside the union office. As dusk approached, the crowd grew tense, anticipating that police might arrive to escort Mr. da Silva from the building.

Mr. da Silva was convicted of having helped construction firm OAS SA win lucrative contracts with the state energy firm Petrobras SA in exchange for a three-bedroom beachfront apartment in a small town in Sao Paulo.

Many Brazilians celebrated the arrest warrant, and fireworks sounded at 5 p.m. in many cities across the country. Mr. da Silva is accused by his critics of having institutionalized a system of kickbacks for contracts. If he goes to jail, it will be an emblematic break from the impunity the powerful have traditionally enjoyed here.

But the country is deeply polarized and many others decried the legal process against him as political persecution by those who resented the redistribution of resources that occurred under the rule of his Workers’ Party. They say the hasty imprisonment order is an attempt to keep Mr. da Silva, who leads all polls, from once more standing for office in elections in October.

“Don’t expect us to walk to the slaughterhouse with our heads hanging low,” said Workers’ Party chair Gleisi Hoffman, half an hour after the apparent deadline expired. “We will stay here to show Brazil that there has to be a fight when you’re defending the rights of the people, the constitution and our democracy.” Ms. Hoffman is also charged with graft.



Saturday would have been the birthday of Mr. da Silva’s wife, Marisa, who died suddenly last year; local media reported that he might turn himself into police after a religious service in her memory at the union building.</s>SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil – Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defied an order to turn himself in to police on Friday as he hunkered down with supporters at a metallurgical union that was the spiritual birthplace of his rise to power.

The once wildly popular leader, who rose from poverty to lead Latin America’s largest nation, had until 5 p.m. local time to present himself to police in the city of Curitiba to begin serving a sentence of 12 years and one month for a corruption conviction.

At 5 p.m., however, da Silva remained inside the union building in the Sao Paulo suburb of Sao Bernardo do Campo, about 260 miles (417 kilometres) northeast of Curitiba. Party leaders said he was planning to address supporters.

Federal judge Sergio Moro, seen by many in Brazil as a crusader against endemic graft, ordered da Silva to turn present himself to police by Friday afternoon.

Two sources close to da Silva told The Associated Press that the former leader would not go to Curitiba, but instead was considering either waiting for police at the union or presenting himself in Sao Paulo. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share internal deliberations being discussed.

Forcing da Silva out of the union building on a Friday night would be a logistical nightmare given the thousands of supporters outside — clashes would be a possibility — and heavy Friday traffic in Sao Paulo.

“The intention is not to force compliance at any cost, but rather follow the order the best way possible, with tranquility and without a media show,” Luis Antonio Boudens, president of the federal police, said in a statement.

Moro’s warrant on Thursday came after Brazil’s top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, voted 6-5 to deny a request by the former president to stay out of prison while he appealed a conviction that he contends was simply a way to keep him off the ballot in October’s election. He is the front-running presidential candidate despite his conviction.

In a statement, Moro said he was giving da Silva the opportunity to come in of his own accord because he had been Brazil’s president. He also said a special cell away from other inmates had been prepared for da Silva at the jail in Curitiba, where Moro ordered da Silva to present himself.

Last year, Moro convicted da Silva of trading favours with a construction company in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. That conviction was upheld by an appeals court in January.

The speed with which Moro issued the warrant surprised many, as legal observers said there were technicalities from da Silva’s upheld appeal that would not be sorted out until next week.

Such technicalities “were simply a pathology that should be eliminated from the judicial world,” Moro said in his statement.

Late Thursday, thousands began gathering outside the metallurgical union in Sao Bernardo do Campo where the ex-president universally known as “Lula” got his start as a union organizer. Hundreds spent the night sleeping on the street, and by Friday evening thousands were again outside.

However it happens, the jailing of da Silva will mark a colossal fall from grace for a man who rose to power against steep odds in one of the world’s most unequal countries.

Born in the hardscrabble northeast, da Silva rose through the ranks of the union in the country’s industrial south. In 1980, during the military dictatorship, da Silva was arrested in Sao Bernardo do Campo for organizing strikes. He would spend more than a month in jail.

After running for president several times, in 2002 da Silva finally won. He governed from 2003 to 2010, leaving office a world celebrity and with approval ratings in the high 80s.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama once called da Silva the “most popular politician on Earth.”

Since leaving office, things have steadily gotten worse for the leader, who has been charged in several corruption cases. He has always maintained his innocence while continuing to campaign across the country the past year. Despite his legal troubles, he leads preference polls to return to office — if by some chance he is allowed to run.

Like so much in a nation that has become deeply polarized, the fact that da Silva would soon be behind bars was being interpreted differently by supporters and detractors.

“It’s a victory for justice,” Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a right-leaning former army captain who is second in the polls after da Silva, said Friday in a video posted on his Twitter account.

Antonio Ferreira dos Santos, a 43-year-old bricklayer who was keeping vigil outside the union, had a different take.

“Lula is one of us. He knows what it is like to have a tough life and loves the poor more than the rich,” said dos Santos.

Workers’ Party leaders insist that da Silva, 72, would still be the party’s candidate in October.

Technically, beginning to serve his sentence would not keep da Silva off the ballot. In August, the country’s top electoral court makes final decisions about candidacies. It was expected to deny da Silva’s candidacy under Brazil’s “clean slate” law, which disqualifies people who have had criminal convictions upheld. However, da Silva could appeal such a decision, though doing so from jail would be more complicated.

Da Silva is the latest of many high-profile people to be ensnared in possibly the largest corruption scandal in Latin American history. Over the last four years, Brazilians have experienced near weekly police operations and arrests of the elite, from top politicians to businessmen like former Odebrecht CEO Marcelo Odebrecht.

Investigators uncovered a major scheme in which construction companies essentially formed a cartel that doled out inflated contracts from state oil company Petrobras, paying billions in kickbacks to politicians and businessmen.

While Moro, who oversees many cases in the so-Called “Operation Car Wash,” is hailed as a hero by many, others see him as a partisan hit man out to get da Silva and the Workers’ Party.

Da Silva was convicted in July of helping a construction company get sweetheart contracts in exchange for the promise of the apartment. He denies any wrongdoing in that case or in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried.</s>Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva amid supporters during the final rally of his week-long campaign tour of southern Brazil, in Curitiba, Parana state, March 28, 2018. AP Photo/Eraldo Peres
• Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva looks likely to be jailed after an unsuccessful fight against a corruption conviction.
• Lula would be the highest-profile Brazilian figure brought down in the Car Wash corruption investigation.
• His exit would also significantly change the makeup of the upcoming presidential election, in which he is the front runner.

In the early morning hours on Thursday, Brazil's top court voted 6-5 vote a deny a request from former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to stay out of jail while he appeals a corruption conviction.

That ruling was followed by federal judge Sergio Moro, who has led the Car Wash corruption investigation that has shaken Brazil's business and political worlds, giving Lula until 4 p.m. ET on Friday to turn himself in and begin serving a 12-year sentence.

A petition to quash the warrant was denied late on Friday afternoon, but Lula's supporters counted down the final seconds, chanting "There is no surrender" after it passed. Lula himself was reportedly on his way on his way to address supporters from a sound truck outside the union headquarters, with riot police also on site.

"According to Moro's office, [Lula's] not technically a fugitive, until Moro issues an order that says he is, which he hasn't, basically because ... we know where he is, on a sound truck," Globe and Mail Latin America correspondent Stephanie Nolen wrote on Twitter late on Friday afternoon.

"Federal prosecutors in Curitiba tell AFP that Lula's missed deadline is kind of OK for now. He's not officially a fugitive. Not yet. This is Brazil," AFP correspondent Sebastian Smith said on Twitter.

Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves to supporters in front of the metal workers' union headquarters in Sao Bernardo do Campo, April 5, 2018. AP Photo/Nelson Antoine

Lula's party, the Workers' Party, has condemned the decision and pledged he will remain its candidate for the October presidential election.

"We consider this to be a political imprisonment. An imprisonment that will expose Brazil before the world," party chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann said Thursday. "We will become a banana republic."

His lawyers have said they will file injunctions to keep him out of jail, but those are unlikely to be granted. Being jailed would not necessarily end his candidacy, as the country's top electoral court will make final decisions about who can run in August.

Lula can continue seeking his release and still has not exhausted his appeals.

But the Thursday ruling has "major implications" for the race, said Thomaz Favaro, Control Risks' analyst for the Southern Cone region, making it much more likely the court will reject Lula's run based on the Clean Slate Law that bars candidates with convictions that have been confirmed by an appeals court. (Though he could still be granted an exemption to that.)

A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads, in Portuguese, "Lula, a thief's place is in prison" as people shout slogans against Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in front of the Federal Police Department in Curitiba, April 6, 2018. AP Photo/Leo Correa

The party's vow to keep Lula on the ballot means he "is therefore likely to remain on campaign mode and he will continue to seek legal loopholes that would allow him to run," Favaro told Business Insider. "The questioning of the judiciary's decision serves the PT's narrative of being victims of a politically motivated trial."

That narrative seems unlikely to resonate with many voters however.

With Lula's strong rebuke of the judiciary and investigators, "he was kind of playing into some of his core supporters from the left and moving away from the center position that actually got him elected before," Fernando Mello, chief political analyst at the Brazilian news site Jota, said on a Friday conference call.

"By aiming his discourse to the left supporters," Mello added, "Lula might have eliminated more the center or the majority of the population, because we have not seen many people going to the streets, for example, to defend him."

That response has also likely been shaped by attitudes toward the legal proceedings against Lula, which have been viewed as fair, even if the prosecution itself is seen as misapplied.

According to a survey conducted Thursday by Ideia Big Data, "80% of the Brazilian population think that the trial was a fair trial," Mauricio Moura, the firm's founder and chief pollster, said on the Jota conference call, adding that 55% of Lula voters said the same.

Supporters of Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with signs that read, in Portuguese "No to prison for Lula," outside the Metallurgic Union headquarters, after an arrest warrant for Lula was issued, in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, April 5, 2018. AP Photo/Andre Penner

"Nine out of 10 Brazilians support ... the Car Wash operation, and 85% support the work of judge Sergio Moro," Moura said. "And from the Lula voters, 75% think that he is going to jail in the next day, so they already internalized the fact that he's going to jail."

"Lula was convicted in open court. Ruling unanimously upheld by 3-judge appellate panel. Ensuing motions rejected by higher courts [including the] Supreme Court. So, this was not one 'renegade' judge. He had due process," Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, said on Twitter. "On the other hand, if you're intellectually honest, it's impossible to justify why Lula is going to jail when so many other corrupt politicians walk free (& still hold office)."

Lula's likely exclusion from the race means more trouble for Brazil's already divided political left. While Lula, who left office after two terms as president with over 80% approval, has successfully boosted other candidates before — helping Dilma Rousseff follow him into office — he may not play kingmaker this time around.

"Local pollsters indicate that his party colleagues, Jacques Wagner and Fernando Haddad, have less than 5% of voting intentions in their best scenarios, with rejection rates north of 50%," Favaro said.

"Although the polls are probably underestimating the electoral strength of a PT candidate, it is nevertheless clear that no substitute would be able to reach Lula's levels of support."

Taking Lula out of the mix may also undercut Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, an extreme-right candidate who has been polling in second behind Lula, buoyed by attacking the left.

The current president, Michel Temer, who is considering running, has record-low approval, with 72% of Brazilians rating his government "bad" or "terrible." Just 5% said it was "good" or "great."

"The votes originally intended to go to the former president are likely to be scattered through leftist and centrist candidates," Favaro told Business Insider.

Other candidates from the left and center, like Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labour Party or Marina Silva of the Sustainability Network, could get a boost in a Lula-less field, Favaro said, but those votes may come from a much smaller pool.

"A substantial amount of Lula's supporters are likely to engage in some form of protest vote — or simply refrain from voting at all," Favaro added. "An electoral race without Lula would most likely report the lowest turnout in recent history."</s>Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will begin his 12 year prison term from Friday, after a judge gave him 24 hours to surrender to police. Have you read Trendiee Today? Click here to read The order from Judge Sergio Moro, head of Brazil’s huge “Car Wash” anti-graft probe, came as a complete surprise given that lawyers had earlier said the leftist former two-term president had at least until Tuesday before he’d have to go behind bars.

Lula, 72, was once one of the most popular politicians on the planet and he easily leads polls in Brazil’s October presidential election. His incarceration will throw the race completely open.

Moro’s office said that in view of Lula’s stature as a former president, he would have “the opportunity to present himself voluntarily” to police in the city of Curitiba, where the “Car Wash” probe is based, by 5:00 pm (2000 GMT) Friday.

There was no immediate reaction from Lula, who had been described earlier by supporters as facing his jailing calmly.

However, Senator Lindbergh Farias, from Lula’s Workers’ Party, issued a defiant call for supporters to congregate in front of Lula’s house in Sao Bernardo near Sao Paulo on Friday.

“Moro ordered prison for Lula. Everyone to Sao Bernardo tomorrow from 5:00 am in front of Lula’s house!” he tweeted.

Lula had been due to address a Workers’ Party rally in the city on Friday afternoon, but that event would now coincide with Moro’s surrender deadline.

Lula petitioned to the Supreme Court on Thursday to be allowed to remain free while pursuing appeals in higher courts against his conviction for receiving a seaside apartment as a bribe from a construction company. A lower court appeal failed this January.

However, the Supreme Court judges ruled 6-5 in a marathon session that under the law, Lula must begin his sentence after having lost that first appeal.

Still, it had been widely expected that with more technical appeals, Lula would start his sentence only sometime next week at the earliest.

Brazil’s left is furious at the Supreme Court ruling, seeing Lula’s imminent imprisonment as a plot to prevent the Workers’ Party from returning to power. Party leader Gleisi Hoffmann said the court ruling violated “constitutional law and the presumption of innocence” and made Brazil “look like a little banana republic.”

However, there were celebrations on the right and among prosecutors supporting the epic “Car Wash” probe, which has revealed high-level corruption throughout Brazilian business and politics over the last four years.

To them, Lula epitomizes Brazil’s corruption-riddled elite. His conviction on charges of accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe is “Car Wash’s” biggest scalp by far.

Lula, who grew up poor and with little formal education before becoming a trade union leader and politician, says he will go down fighting.

Analysts say that his election hopes have now been dealt a body blow. But he is not necessarily knocked out.

In theory, once someone has been convicted and lost their lower court appeal, they are barred from running for office under Brazil’s clean slate law. But the issue will not be decided for months.

Lula has until mid-August to register his candidacy and only after that will the Superior Electoral Tribunal rule on whether his candidacy is valid.

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This post was syndicated from The Nation Nigeria. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>Brazil's top appeals court on Friday rejected former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s latest plea that he stay out of prison until he has exhausted all appeals to his corruption conviction, according to a court document.

Lula has been ordered to turn himself in to police by 5 p.m. on Friday to begin serving a 12-year sentence for accepting bribes from an engineering firm in return for help landing contracts with Brazil’s state-run oil company.</s>SÃO BERNARDO DO CAMPO: Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a fallen giant of emerging nation politics and still the frontrunner in Brazil’s October presidential elections, was given 24 hours to surrender to police and start a 12-year prison sentence for corruption by late Friday.

However, cheering supporters in the leftist veteran’s hometown Sao Bernardo do Campo urged him to resist arrest.

The boisterous crowd of about 2,000 Workers’ Party faithful stood outside the metal workers’ union building in the town near megacity Sao Paulo, with some vowing to shield him from police.

“We consider this imprisonment illegal,” said Workers’ Party Senator Lindbergh Farias. “Why would he turn himself in, given a situation like this? If they want to arrest him, to imprison him, let them come here.”

Lula, 72, waved from an upper window but by the early hours of Friday he had yet to speak publicly.

The defiant mood of protesters raised the prospect of a dramatic new turn in a legal battle apparently dooming the veteran leftist’s hopes of competing in October presidential elections, despite his strong lead in opinion polls.

“Lula must resist to the end. He won’t run, he will stay here and we won’t hand him over without a struggle,” said Adimir Jose da Silva, 57, a member of the road workers union. “We’ll close the street and maybe we’ll have to confront the police, why not?”

Farias said Lula would only decide whether to surrender in the morning.

Earlier, Judge Sergio Moro, head of Brazil’s huge “Car Wash” anti-graft probe, had ordered Lula to “present himself voluntarily” to police in the southern city of Curitiba, where the probe is based, by 5:00 pm (2000 GMT) Friday.

The order gave Lula just 24 hours to turn himself. It came as a surprise to defense lawyers who’d been expecting Lula to face prison only next week.

Moro said that in view of Lula’s importance, a special cell “was prepared in advance… in which the ex-president will be separated from other prisoners, with no risk for his moral or physical integrity.”

Lula, convicted last year of receiving a seaside apartment as a bribe, had tried to convince the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let him remain at liberty while he pursued lengthy appeals — and campaign for election.

In a marathon session, the high court turned that petition down Thursday, leaving Lula all but certain to go behind bars.

Removal of Lula from the presidential race would open up the field dramatically. Currently, hard-right former army officer Jair Bolsonaro, who openly praises Brazil’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, is in second place in opinion polls.

In his first public reaction, Lula, who was once among the planet’s most popular politicians, called the abruptly announced order “absurd,” CBN radio reported.

Asked if he would comply, the veteran leftist leader, who ruled from 2003-2011 and is seeking a third term in October, said he would act on his lawyers’ advice, CBN reported.

Supporters of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gather outside the Metallurgical Union, in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, after a judge gave Lula 24 hours to surrender himself and begin a 12-year prison term

Brazil’s left sees Lula’s imminent imprisonment as a plot to prevent the Workers’ Party from returning to power. Party leader Gleisi Hoffmann said the Supreme Court’s denial of Lula’s petition violated “constitutional law and the presumption of innocence” and made Brazil “look like a little banana republic.”

However, there were celebrations on the right and among prosecutors supporting the epic “Car Wash” probe, which has revealed high-level corruption throughout Brazilian business and politics over the last four years.

To them, Lula epitomizes Brazil’s corruption-riddled elite. His conviction is “Car Wash’s” biggest scalp by far.

Operation “Car Wash” was named after the service station where agents initially investigated a minor money laundering scheme in 2014, before realizing that they’d stumbled on a gargantuan web of embezzlement and bribery at state oil company Petrobras and right through the political classes.

But Lula, who grew up poor and with little formal education before becoming a trade union leader and politician, says he will go down fighting.

When he left office after serving two terms in 2011, he had some of the highest approval ratings of any leader in the world.

In theory, once someone has been convicted and lost their lower court appeal, they are barred from running for office under Brazil’s clean slate law.

Still, even in prison, Lula has the right to register as a candidate. It would then be up the Superior Electoral Tribunal to rule on whether his candidacy could stand.

Although Lula would be almost certainly blocked, he could use the process to maintain his political influence. AFP</s>Brazil's Lula Da Silva Defies Deadline To Hand Himself Over To Police

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's deadline has come and gone, and still the former Brazilian president remains a free man — for now, at least. He has hunkered down with his supporters in a São Paulo suburb, some 280 miles from the southern city of Curitiba, where a judge's order had mandated that he present himself to police by 4 p.m. ET Friday.

Just an hour earlier, the country's top appeals court rejected da Silva's latest bid to stay out of custody while he continues to fight a corruption conviction handed down last year. The latest decision backed the supreme court's 6-5 ruling Wednesday, which concluded he must begin his 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering.

Da Silva, 72, has been free during the appeals process.

The ruling has deeply complicated the political prospects for the wildly popular two-term ex-president, who left office about seven years ago with high approval ratings and now commands a significant lead in the 2018 presidential race.

That popularity was on display at the metalworkers' union in São Bernardo do Campo, where da Silva is staying — and where, as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, thousands of people have gathered all day. As soon as the clock passed the appointed surrender time, those supporters burst out in song: "Olê, olê, olá, Lulá, Lulá!"

Da Silva, his Workers' Party and his supporters have cast the conviction as the machinations of a ruling elite seeking to prevent him from running. The party tweeted that Wednesday's ruling was "a tragic day for democracy and for Brazil," adding in another tweet that "there is no justice in this decision."

Da Silva was caught up in Operation Car Wash, a massive corruption probe that has also implicated Brazil's sitting president, Michel Temer, and several of the country's most influential business leaders. According to investigators, da Silva accepted illegal kickbacks in exchange for favors on government contracts.

"It's important to show that people are going to jail for doing wrong things, even if it was an ex-president," one protester told Philip earlier this week, during a demonstration urging the supreme court to rule against da Silva.

On Tuesday, not long before the ruling against da Silva, the commander of Brazil's army weighed in. The military, like "all good citizens, repudiates impunity and respects the Constitution, social peace and democracy," Gen. Eduardo Villas Boas tweeted, according to a Reuters translation.

"In Brazil's current situation," he said, "it is up to the institutions and citizens to ask who is really thinking of the well-being of our country and its future generations and who is only concerned about personal interests."</s>Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's deadline has come and gone, and still the former Brazilian president remains a free man — for now, at least. He has hunkered down with his supporters in a São Paulo suburb, some 280 miles from the southern city of Curitiba, where a judge's order had mandated that he present himself to police by 4 p.m. ET Friday.

Just an hour earlier, the country's top appeals court rejected da Silva's latest bid to stay out of custody while he continues to fight a corruption conviction handed down last year. The latest decision backed the supreme court's 6-5 ruling Wednesday, which concluded he must begin his 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering.

Da Silva, 72, has been free during the appeals process.

The ruling has deeply complicated the political prospects for the wildly popular two-term ex-president, who left office about seven years ago with high approval ratings and now commands a significant lead in the 2018 presidential race.

That popularity was on display at the metalworkers' union in São Bernardo do Campo, where da Silva is staying — and where, as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, thousands of people have gathered all day. As soon as the clock passed the appointed surrender time, those supporters burst out in song: "Olê, olê, olá, Lulá, Lulá!"

Da Silva, his Workers' Party and his supporters have cast the conviction as the machinations of a ruling elite seeking to prevent him from running. The party tweeted that Wednesday's ruling was "a tragic day for democracy and for Brazil," adding in another tweet that "there is no justice in this decision."

Da Silva was caught up in Operation Car Wash, a massive corruption probe that has also implicated Brazil's sitting president, Michel Temer, and several of the country's most influential business leaders. According to investigators, da Silva accepted illegal kickbacks in exchange for favors on government contracts.

"It's important to show that people are going to jail for doing wrong things, even if it was an ex-president," one protester told Philip earlier this week, during a demonstration urging the supreme court to rule against da Silva.

On Tuesday, not long before the ruling against da Silva, the commander of Brazil's army weighed in. The military, like "all good citizens, repudiates impunity and respects the Constitution, social peace and democracy," Gen. Eduardo Villas Boas tweeted, according to a Reuters translation.

"In Brazil's current situation," he said, "it is up to the institutions and citizens to ask who is really thinking of the well-being of our country and its future generations and who is only concerned about personal interests."</s>Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's deadline has come and gone, and still the former Brazilian president remains a free man — for now, at least. He has hunkered down with his supporters in a São Paulo suburb, some 280 miles from the southern city of Curitiba, where a judge's order had mandated that he present himself to police by 4 p.m. ET Friday.

Just an hour earlier, the country's top appeals court rejected da Silva's latest bid to stay out of custody while he continues to fight a corruption conviction handed down last year. The latest decision backed the supreme court's 6-5 ruling Wednesday, which concluded he must begin his 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering.

Da Silva, 72, has been free during the appeals process.

The ruling has deeply complicated the political prospects for the wildly popular two-term ex-president, who left office about seven years ago with high approval ratings and now commands a significant lead in the 2018 presidential race.

That popularity was on display at the metalworkers' union in São Bernardo do Campo, where da Silva is staying — and where, as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, thousands of people have gathered all day. As soon as the clock passed the appointed surrender time, those supporters burst out in song: "Olê, olê, olá, Lulá, Lulá!"

Da Silva, his Workers' Party and his supporters have cast the conviction as the machinations of a ruling elite seeking to prevent him from running. The party tweeted that Wednesday's ruling was "a tragic day for democracy and for Brazil," adding in another tweet that "there is no justice in this decision."

Da Silva was caught up in Operation Car Wash, a massive corruption probe that has also implicated Brazil's sitting president, Michel Temer, and several of the country's most influential business leaders. According to investigators, da Silva accepted illegal kickbacks in exchange for favors on government contracts.

"It's important to show that people are going to jail for doing wrong things, even if it was an ex-president," one protester told Philip earlier this week, during a demonstration urging the supreme court to rule against da Silva.

On Tuesday, not long before the ruling against da Silva, the commander of Brazil's army weighed in. The military, like "all good citizens, repudiates impunity and respects the Constitution, social peace and democracy," Gen. Eduardo Villas Boas tweeted, according to a Reuters translation.

"In Brazil's current situation," he said, "it is up to the institutions and citizens to ask who is really thinking of the well-being of our country and its future generations and who is only concerned about personal interests."
Brazilian federal judge Sérgio Moro orders the arrest of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by late Friday to begin serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.