Brazilian court orders arrest of ex-president
SÃO PAULO — A Brazilian judge ordered former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva late Thursday to report to jail by 5 p.m. Friday in a surprise move expected to galvanize widespread protests in a country already shaken by a supreme court decision earlier in the day.
The order was issued by Sérgio Moro, the main judge presiding over Brazil’s “Car Wash” corruption investigation, who first convicted Lula on money-laundering and corruption charges in 2016.
It followed the top court’s 6-to-5 vote to reject a bid by Lula to stay free while he pursued appeals – a decision that effectively removed the front-runner in Brazil’s presidential election later this year.
The resulting vacuum instantly recast the political landscape in Latin America’s largest country.
Even before Moro’s ruling, the court verdict had jolted Lula’s supporters on the left, which has no clear candidate ready to replace him in the October vote, and elevated the prospects of Jair Bolsonaro, a divisive right-wing populist who has been running second to him in the polls.
“It’s going to be a very tumultuous election. The left has lost its reference,” said Carlos Melo, a professor of political science at the Insper Institute of Education and Research in Sao Paulo.
“The right is fragmented, too. We will see disputes for bands of voters along the fault lines.”
After Moro’s order, the tension heightened considerably.
“This is unacceptable in a democratic society,” Paulo Frateschi, a leading member of the Workers’ Party, told a pro-Lula rally at the University of Sao Paulo.
“This is one of the most fascist thing to happen in Brazil. We want to show the world that Lula is not suffering alone. He has our support.”
“I’m shocked,” said Igor Montalvão, leader of the university’s socialist youth movement.
“There is clear persecution of the greatest popular leader this country has ever seen.”
“There will be resistance of all kinds,” said Luciana Salgado, 50, a linguistics professor.
“People have no idea what will explode.”
Moro said that Lula will be kept in a separate cell at the police sta- tion and that handcuffs will not be used.
“Due to the dignity of the job he held, we are giving him the opportunity to voluntarily present himself to the police station in Curitiba,” he said.
The split court decision reflected the polarized public opinion of Lula, 72, a charismatic figure who is credited with lifting 20 million people out of poverty during his eight years in office but also has been ensnared by criminal allegations.
In January, an appeals court sentenced him to 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering in a case stemming from the investigation into the Car Wash operation, the biggest corruption scandal in Brazilian history.
Lula denies any wrongdoing. His attorney said he would “pursue all legal measures” to keep the former president out of jail.
The court’s decision Thursday will bring long-awaited clarity to Brazil’s political landscape, which had been obscured by uncertainty over Lula’s fate.
According to polling, the former president would win the election by a landslide.
In the latest polls, conducted in January, he had the support of 36 percent of likely voters, double the number backing Bolsonaro.
Under Brazilian law, his conviction bars him from running for public office, but Lula and the Workers’ Party he founded in 1980 have said his campaign will continue from behind bars.
“The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Lula, the candidate of hope.
“The Workers’ Party will defend his candidacy in the streets in all circumstances, until the end,” the party said in a statement Thursday.
Lula met Thursday with former president Dilma Rousseff and other leaders of the party to assess the options ahead of his arrest.
The group was said to discuss whether Lula should turn himself in or wait to be arrested, according to local media reports.
“We consider this a political imprisonment,” said Sen. Gleisi Hoffmann.
“It is an imprisonment that will unmask Brazil internationally. We will turn into a banana republic.”
A faction within the Workers’ Party said it planned to create a “human barricade” to protect the former president from arrest.