Expresident released from jail

Former Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva walked out of jail on Friday, less than a day after the Supreme Court ruled that a person can be imprisoned only after all the appeals have been exhausted.

Hundreds of redshirted supporters gathered outside the federal police building in southern city of Curitiba, and cheered the popular, 74yearold politician, whose release could rally a demoralized opposition. Da Silva, who is appealing his conviction of corruption and money laundering in connection with the purchase of a beachfront apartment in Sao Paulo state, embraced his daughter, raised his fist to the sky, then made his way onto a stage where he was surrounded by his girlfriend and others.

“You have no idea the dimension of the significance of me being here with you,” Da Silva told jubilant supporters, thanking individual union leaders and members of his leftist Workers’ Party. “They didn’t arrest a man. They tried to detain an idea. An idea doesn’t disappear.”

Da Silva, who is universally known as Lula, has been imprisoned since April 2018. It is not yet clear what political role he will seek now that he is free. He is barred from office while his appeals run their course, but the former leader of the Workers’ Party, better known in Brazil by its Portuguese acronym PT, remains a popular figure on the left. Still, he could find himself back in jail if his appeals don’t go his way.