Top court flip-flops on Lula’s release from prison

The president of a Brazilian appeals court whose judges issued contradictory rulings yesterday on whether former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva should be freed ordered later in the day that he remain jailed. The duty judge on the Fourth Federal Regional Tribunal initially ordered that da Silva be released yesterday morning. That set off a series of dramatic back-and-forth during the day as one judge refused to follow that order and another contradicted it. The dispute underscored how contentious da Silva’s jailing has become in Brazil, where some see it as proof that no-one is above the law and others feel the charges against the former president were trumped up.