A Justice on Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a delay until next week of a debate on changing a law that could, if passed, lead to the imminent release of recently jailed ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who began a 12-year jail sentence on Saturday in Curitiba, could win an early reprieve if the country's top court decides to change a key law. Marco Aurelio Mello, a judge at the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), said he would petition the divided court next Wednesday to revisit the current law on incarceration during appeals.
Brazil's leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned himself in Saturday to start a 12-year sentence for corruption after a chaotic attempt by supporters to stop him from surrendering. Surrounded by bodyguards, Lula had to push through a seething throng of supporters to get into a police vehicle outside the metalworkers' union building in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where he had been holed up for two days and nights.
Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's polarizing election frontrunner and leftist icon, was negotiating his surrender after dramatically skipping a first deadline Friday to start his 12-year prison sentence for corruption.
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Folha de Sao Paulo early Friday that he has decided not to turn himself at the Federal Police in Curitiba where he must serve a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, as ordered by judge Sergio Moro.
Even when Brazilian ex president Lula da Silva was described as facing Judge Sergio Moro's Friday jailing decision calmly, the big question now is what follows for the presidential candidate and the Workers Party chances ahead of the coming October presidential election.
Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, front runner in Brazil’s October presidential elections, was given 24 hours on Thursday to surrender to police and start a 12-year prison sentence for corruption. The timing of the order from Judge Sergio Moro, head of Brazil’s huge “Car Wash” anti-graft probe, took Lula’s lawyers by complete surprise. They had been expecting to use legal maneuvers to delay the start of prison at least until next week.
The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil (STF) decided to reject the judicial appeal filed by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to appeal while in freedom to a sentence for corruption that remains pending, so the former president should enter the prison and begin compliance of the sentence.
The commander of Brazil's army added tension on the eve of a Supreme Court decision on whether former President Lula da Silva should be allowed to exhaust his appeals process before being sent to jail for a corruption conviction.
Brazil's top court could rule as soon as this Wednesday whether former President Lula da Silva can stay out of prison while appealing a corruption conviction, a decision that could radically alter October's presidential election in Latin America's largest nation.