Brazilian president Lula da Silva's lawyer, Cristiano Zanin, 47, took a seat for life on the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday. Zanin helped Lula overturn convictions stemming from Brazil’s sprawling “Car Wash” corruption investigation and was freed after 580 days of incarceration.
Brazil's icon Lula da Silva walked free from jail on Friday after a year and a half behind bars for corruption following a court ruling that could release thousands of convicts. The former president, wearing a black T-shirt and suit jacket, pumped his fist in the air as he exited the federal police headquarters in the southern city of Curitiba and was quickly mobbed by hundreds of supporters and journalists.
Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will learn in January whether a prison sentence against him is upheld, officials said, potentially knocking him out of next year's presidential election. Lula was sentenced in July to 9.5 years behind bars after being convicted of corruption in Brazil's huge Car Wash graft scandal.