Brazil's top appeals court on Friday rejected former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s latest plea that he stay out of prison until he has exhausted all appeals to his corruption conviction, according to a court document.

Lula has been ordered to turn himself in to police by 5 p.m. on Friday to begin serving a 12-year sentence for accepting bribes from an engineering firm in return for help landing contracts with Brazil’s state-run oil company. </s> Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was found guilty of corruption Wednesday in the first of five trials facing the popular politician.

A federal judge sentenced the former leader of Latin America’s biggest country to nine years and six months in prison after his conviction Wednesday. He will remain free while the decision is appealed.

Lula was convicted of accepting $1.2 million in bribes from contractor OAS, which prosecutors said was used for the purchase and renovation of a luxury penthouse apartment in the seaside town of Guaruja. Prosecutors said that in return Lula helped the firm win contracts with state-run oil giant Petrobras.

The verdict by Judge Sergio Moro, who is known for taking a tough stance on politicians and entrepreneurs involved in Brazil’s billion-dollar corruption scandal known as Lava Jato, or Car Wash, will be analyzed by the 4th Federal Regional Court, a standard practice. The court takes an average of a year and a half to review sentencing decisions.

Moro will also preside over one of Lula’s other four Lava Jato-related trials. The other three will be tried in the Federal Court of Brasilia.

This is the highest-profile conviction to date related to the widespread graft investigation, which has seen several politicians and well-known figures in business fall from grace for their involvement in the sweeping corruption scheme.

They include impeached lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who is serving a sentence of 15 years and four months for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and former Rio de Janeiro Gov. Sergio Cabral, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of corruption and money laundering.

Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2011, is considered the country’s most popular politician and was seen as the top candidate for the 2018 elections in polling company Datafolha’s June poll.

12:30 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times reporting.

This article was originally published at 11:55 am. </s> SÃO PAULO -- Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was convicted convicted Wednesday on corruption charges stemming from the Car Wash graft probe, the massive investigation into corruption centered on state-owned oil company Petróleo Brasileiro.

Mr. da Silva has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. His representatives couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Judge Sergio Moro sentenced Mr. da Silva to nine years and six months, a spokeswoman for the judge said. </s> Brazil's Supreme Court has ruled that ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be jailed while he appeals against a graft conviction. He is facing 12 years in prison on charges of accepting a bribe but had asked to remain free during his appeal. Lula claims the charges are politically motivated, and designed to prevent him from running for president in October. Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has taken Lula's case to the UN Human Rights Commission. </s> Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has started a 12-year jail sentence for corruption following his arrest on Saturday night after a tense and at time chaotic 50-hour stand-off with authorities.

He becomes the first person who served as his country’s president to be, jailed for a criminal offence. It marks a dramatic fall for Brazil’s most popular leader in over half a century and further roils the South American giant’s already turbulent political scene just six months before presidential elections in October.

Though ineligible to run following his conviction, Lula nevertheless leads all polls in the race which contains no obvious replacement as favourite. He has vowed to continue his campaign from jail.

His detention follows the final failure of his appeal against his conviction last year in a kickback case involving a beach-front apartment and the refusal of the country’s supreme court to grant him a writ of habeas corpus while he appeals to higher courts in Brasília.

From Thursday evening when federal judge Sérgio Moro issued the arrest warrant millions of Brazilians followed the drama of Lula’s drawn-out detention on television. But despite warnings from leaders of his Workers Party that any attempt to arrest him would inflame the country, protests for and against Lula were small and scattered if occasionally violent.

The weekend’s drama started when a defiant Lula ignored an invitation from Judge Moro to present himself to police by 5pm on Friday in the southern city of Curitiba where he was convicted. Instead he barricaded himself inside the headquarters of the trade union in Greater São Paulo where he first rose to national prominence in the 1970s. After negotiations he agreed to hand himself over to police after a mass scheduled for Saturday to mark the birthday of his deceased wife, Marisa Letícia.

The service turned into a political rally during which an impassioned Lula claimed he was being persecuted because his social policies benefited the country’ poor. He vowed to prove his innocence while accusing police, federal prosecutors and judges as well as Brazil’s main conservative media of lying about his case.

After the rally Lula’s first attempt to leave the union headquarters by car was frustrated by militants who sought to resist the detention order. The former president’s legal team reportedly advised that any further delay in surrendering to police would only prejudice future efforts to have his detention suspended. A subsequent attempt to leave on foot surrounded by emotional supporters was successful.

Police first brought him for a medical examination before flying him to Curitiba to start his sentence in a special cell in the city’s federal police building. He is being held in a separate section of the building from other high-profile detainees of the Car Wash anti-corruption investigation that over four years has uncovered multibillion euro corruption schemes involving politicians and powerful private sector contractors across Brazil’s public sector.

Among the detainees being held is Lula’s former finance minister Antônio Palocci, who has incriminated his former boss whom he said had “succumbed to the worst of politics during his government’s best moment”.

The former president was found guilty in the first of several corruption cases against him to come to trial and faces the likelihood of further convictions as the investigations that have destabilised Brazilian politics for the last four years and spread across Latin America continue, despite growing efforts by Brazil’s establishment to neuter the efforts of police and prosecutors. </s> A Brazilian appellate court has unanimously upheld a corruption conviction imposed on former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – and added years to his prison sentence.

A Brazilian appellate court has unanimously upheld a corruption conviction imposed on former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – and added years to his prison sentence.

The decision was the latest legal setback for Mr da Silva, who was wildly popular as president between 2003 and 2010 but has since been dogged by corruption allegations amid a scandal that has taken down top politicians and business executives in Latin America’s largest nation. While Mr da Silva has several avenues to still get on the October ballot – and his lawyers have indicated they will appeal any setback – the ruling further complicates a political comeback.

Judges sit in an appellate court during a hearing to consider whether to uphold or throw out a corruption conviction against Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Porto Alegre, Brazil (Sylvio Sirangelo/TRF via AP) Many argue that sidelining him could anger millions of his supporters and shake the country’s political stability. A three-judge panel heard arguments from both sides over Mr da Silva’s conviction on corruption and money-laundering charges alleging that he took a payoff from a construction company in return for contracts.

Judge Joao Pedro Gebran Neto was the first to vote. He went beyond the original conviction, saying that jail time should be 12 years and one month, an increase of more than two years from the sentence levied in July. “I consider the culpability in the case extremely high,” he said.

“This is about a former president and a corruption scheme that prevailed for years.” The following two judges agreed on all counts.

While Mr da Silva faces corruption charges in six more cases, the 72-year-old has been leading preference polls for October’s race. Supporters use their mobile phones during a protest in support of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Rio de Janeiro (Silvia Izquierdo/AP) His Workers’ Party called the decision a “farce” and defiantly declared it would proceed with its plan to register him as its presidential candidate in August.

“We will fight in defence of democracy in all forums, in the judiciary and mainly on the streets,” party chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann said in a statement. “If some think the story ends with today’s decision, they are very wrong because we do not surrender before injustice.”

With tensions high, authorities closed streets around the courthouse in the southern city of Porto Alegre as the hearing opened. Helicopters hovered above, police patrolled on horses and sharpshooters stood on rooftops. In this deeply polarised, continent-sized nation, the case is part of a larger narrative, with supporters and detractors of Mr da Silva offering their own interpretations.

Mr da Silva and his supporters say it and the other corruption cases are an attempt to keep him from returning to office. They argue it is part of a conspiracy by Brazil’s elite seeking to keep out a president like Mr da Silva who focuses on the poor and levels the playing field in one of the world’s most unequal nations. Detractors note that Mr da Silva and his left-leaning Workers’ Party were running the country while a widespread corruption scheme siphoned billions from state oil company Petrobras and helped Latin America’s largest economy fall into its worst recession in decades.

“I supported Lula long ago, but he became one of the crooks,” said Diego Esteves, a university student in Porto Alegre. Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the lower house of Congress, said that despite having long been a political foe of Mr da Silva, he was not celebrating on Wednesday. “In politics, the best forum for different ideas to do battle is an electoral campaign,” he said in a statement. </s> Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A Brazilian appeals court unanimously upheld a corruption conviction against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday.

The three-judge panel's decision to uphold the conviction could prevent the 72-year-old da Silva's candidacy in Brazil's upcoming election. The country's "clean record law" bars politicians whose convictions are upheld on appeal from running for office.

"There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the ex-president was one of the actors, if not the principal actor, of an ample corruption scheme," said Joao Pedro Gebran Neto, one of the judges.

The court ruled against jailing Lula da Silva as he fights the conviction, but increased his sentence from 9 years to 12 years in prison.

"At a minimum, he was conscious and gave support to what happened," Neto said.

Lula Da Silva was convicted of receiving more than $1 million in bribes, including a newly refurbished beachfront apartment, as part of a corruption scandal known as "Operation Car Wash."

The former president can appeal the conviction to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court and the Supreme Federal Court and apply to an electoral tribunal for a special exemption to run for president if the appeal process extends through the election.

He delivered a message of defiance while speaking at a rally of his supporters in Porto Alegre, home of the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Appeals, on Tuesday.

"Only one thing is going to remove me from the streets of this country and that will be the day that I die," Lula da Silva said. "Until then, I will be fighting for a fairer society."

His Workers' Party backed up Lula da Silva in a statement and called on his supporters to take to the streets.

"If they think this story ends with today's decision they're sorely mistaken," the party said. "We won't give up in the face of this injustice." </s> SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s legal team filed a motion with the Supreme Court on Friday to suspend an order by a lower court judge for him to start serving a 12-year prison sentence, according to court documents.

His legal team, which argued they had not exhausted procedural appeals before the judge issued an order for Lula to turn himself in to authorities, already lost a last-minute appeal on Friday to the country’s top appeals court. </s> Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva has handed himself over to police to begin a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, according to local media.

The 72-year-old left on Saturday the steel-workers union building where he had sought refuge while defying for some 24 hours a court deadline to submit to custody.

Lula was taken away from the premises in an industrial suburb of Sao Paulo in a convoy of black police cars, Globo TV reported.

An earlier attempt to leave the offices had been blocked by a crowd of supporters who opposed his arrest and blocked the exit of the building.

Lula is now expected to be flown to the southern city of Curitiba to start serving his sentence, where a "specially designed jail cell" awaited the former president, said Al Jazeera's Daniel Schweimler, reporting from Sao Paulo.

'I will come out of this bigger, stronger'

Lula's lawyers had lodged several requests to avoid jail until exhausting all appeals against his corruption conviction, which were all ultimately unsuccessful.

The leftist politician, which was president from 2003 to 2011, was convicted in July of corruption and money-laundering in connection with the renovation of a beachside penthouse he was planning to buy.

The renovation was bankrolled by a company seeking contracts with the state oil giant Petrobras.

The case was linked to the massive Lava Jato corruption scandal surrounding Petrobras, which has led to the jailing of dozens of entrepreneurs and politicians.

Judge Sergio Moro sentenced Lula to nine-and-a-half years in prison, and an appeals court raised the jail term to 12 years and one month.

The judge had ordered Lula to report to a police station in Curitiba by 5pm (20:00 GMT) on Friday. But Lula skipped the deadline and spent the night holed up inside the headquarters of the steel-workers union.

Thousands of his supporters surrounded the building overnight, dissuading the police from trying to arrest him.

He finally emerged on Saturday morning for an impromptu mass to commemorate his late wife, Marisa Leticia, who died last year.

In an hour-long speech at the event, Lula accused the judiciary and Brazil's most powerful media conglomerate of assisting what he described as a right-wing "coup" with the ultimate aim of preventing him from competing in this year's presidential elections.

Despite his legal problems, opinion polls suggest that he will win in the October 7 vote.

During his speech, Lulatold cheering supporters that Brazil's top anti-corruption judge "lied" about him being given the luxury apartment by a big construction firm as a kickback.

"I am the only human being to be put on trial for an apartment which does not belong to me," he said.

But, he added: "I will comply with their warrant".

Lula also rejected multiple suggestions of fleeing or seeking asylum abroad.

"You'll see that I will come out of this bigger, stronger," he said, promising to prove his innocence.

The union where Lula had sought refuge served as the launch pad for his career nearly four decades ago, when he led nationwide strikes that helped to end Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship.

Lula's everyman style and unvarnished speeches electrified masses and eventually won him two terms as president, from 2003 to 2011, when he oversaw robust economic growth and falling inequality amid a commodities boom.

He left office with a sky-high approval rate of 83 percent and was once called "the most popular politician on Earth" by former US President Barack Obama.
Brazilian federal judge Sérgio Moro orders the arrest of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by late Friday to begin serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.