Brazil’s Lula awaits ruling that will decide if he can run again

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva awaited on Wednesday the outcome of his appeal against a corruption conviction -- a ruling that will effectively determine if he can run for re-election this year. In the tense run-up to the announcement, Lula told supporters Tuesday that he would continue his political fight regardless of the outcome. Thousands of people rallied in support of the 72-year former leftist president in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where an appeals court is set to rule on his conviction on Wednesday.

Hugely popular during his two-term presidency from 2001 to 2010, Lula was sentenced in July to nine and a half years behind bars after being convicted of corruption in Brazil's huge "Car Wash" graft scandal, reports AFP.

The appeals court will rule whether to uphold that sentence for passive corruption and money laundering and in the process decide if he can run in an election in October he is favored to win. "Only one thing will take me off the streets of this country, and it will be the day of my death," Lula told cheering supporters, many wearing the red T-shirts of his Workers' Party (PT).

"Until that moment, I will fight for a more just society. Whatever the outcome of the trial, I will continue fighting for the dignity of the people of this country." Lula was joined on the podium by his handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budget rules.