Brazil’s Lula begins 12-year sentence

Marks downfall of once one of world’s most popular politicians

Leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent Sunday as Brazil’s first ex-president to be imprisoned for a common crime – and his cell was in the headquarters of the giant anti-graft probe that brought him down.

The first day of Lula’s 12-year sentence marked the downfall of once one of the world’s most popular politicians.

Although Brazilian presidents of recent history have routinely ended up in trouble – impeached, brought down by a coup and even one suicide – Lula is the first to have been convicted of corruption and locked up.

His new home is a roughly 15 square meter cell in the federal police headquarters in Curitiba, the southern city where the “Car Wash” probe is based.

Named after a service station where agents initially uncovered a relatively small money laundering operation, “Car Wash” has turned into one of the world’s biggest ever examples of such a probe, netting scores of top politicians, some of Brazil’s richest businessmen, and sending shock waves through Latin America.

Lula was found guilty last year of taking a luxury apartment as a bribe from a construction company and is “Car Wash’s” biggest scalp – though Lula says the conviction was rigged.

The former two-term president arrived by police helicopter on the roof of the lock-up in Curitiba late Saturday.

As the helicopter landed, demonstrators outside let off volleys of fireworks, while riot police fired tear gas, filling the air with explosions and smoke. Eight people were slightly injured, the fire department said.

It was a fittingly chaotic end to four days of intense tension as Brazil wondered whether the Workers’ Party founder would finally be put behind bars.

Lula, who despite the scandal leads easily in polls ahead of October presidential elections, tried to get his sentence delayed in a marathon appeal at the Supreme Court in Brasilia on Wednesday.

When that was turned down, he engaged in a standoff with authorities in his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo.

Surrounded by thousands of supporters at the metalworkers’ union building in the suburb, he brazenly ignored an order to turn himself in by Friday.