Brazil’s Lula likely to go behind bars

RIO AFP JANEIRO, April5, 2018   - Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was almost sure to go to prison next week after a Supreme Court ruling likely doomed his plan to return to power in October elections, leaving Latin America’s biggest country in a divided, angry mood Thursday.   

Lawyers for the founder of Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party can wait until Monday to file a final, purely technical appeal with the lower court that in January sentenced Lula to 12 years and one month for corruption.   

The appeal would almost certainly be quickly rejected and Lula, once one of the world’s most popular politicians, would be ordered to start his sentence immediately.   

Lula, who despite his legal problems leads easily in opinion polls ahead of the upcoming presidential election, had hoped the Supreme Court would grant him liberty while he appealed his conviction in higher courts.