Brazil’s Lula surrenders to police, ending standoff

Bloomberg

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned himself in to the police, finally ending a tense stand-off with authorities after ignoring a court-ordered deadline to begin a prison sentence.
Lula left the metalworkers union headquarters, where he had hunkered down since last week, and is in police custody, TV footage showed. He ended up leaving by foot, after an earlier attempt to leave by car was blocked by protesters.
“I will comply with their order,” Lula said to a crowd of supporters gathered in front of the union office in a working-class suburb of Sao Paulo early on Saturday, vowing to “face them.”
In an emotional, almost hour-long speech, given after a Mass dedicated to his late wife, Lula said he’ll be proven innocent and that the prosecutors and judges lied in their accusations. He also criticised the media and said his only crime was putting “the poor and black people in college.” Former president Dilma Rousseff and several of Lula’s former cabinet members were present, as well as leftist presidential hopefuls.

Bitterly Divided
Lula’s surrender marks the end of an extraordinary, almost-four-day saga that has gripped Brazil, a country bitterly divided over the charismatic 72-year-old who rose from poverty to the presidency.
While he remains hugely popular among the millions of Brazilians he helped lift from poverty during the commodities boom that characterised his years in office, he has become equally loathed by many for the corruption and economic malaise that has marred his legacy.
As he was the front-runner for October’s presidential race, Lula’s arrest increases the unpredictability of the election. While his hopes of a return to power are almost certainly shattered, the key question now is to what extent his imprisonment will influence October’s races.
A Supreme Court decision paved the way for his imprisonment, following a conviction for corruption and money laundering. Sergio Moro, the judge who prosecuted him, ordered the ex-president to turn himself in by 5 pm on April 06 to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence.
The judge specifically vetoed the use of handcuffs by the arresting officers and wrote that a special detention area had been set aside for the former president. Lula’s lawyers’ requests to delay or suspend the arrest were denied by higher court judges.
The former factory worker was convicted of receiving benefits from a construction company—including the upgrade of a beach-front apartment—as a reward for government favors. He has denied wrongdoing and said the ruling is part of a strategy to stop him from becoming president again. He also faces a handful of other corruption charges.