Brazil’s Lula Complies With Federal Arrest Warrant, Stresses He Is Innocent

 Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has complied with the federal warrant demanding him be arrested in order to begin serving his 12-year sentence for “corruption” – a warrant both Lula and his lawyers insist is illegal, Telesur reported.

Shortly before 7 p.m. local time, Lula was seen leaving the steelworkers’ union building in Sao Paulo in which he has been ensconced since Friday in a convoy of police vehicles. It is believed he is being transported to Congonhas Airport, from where he will be taken to a prison in southern Curitiba.

Earlier, Lula said he had been falsely accused of corruption but would comply with an arrest warrant and turn himself in to police.

 Lula, who has been ordered to start a 12-year prison sentence for “accepting a luxury apartment as a bribe”, told his supporters on Saturday that federal judge Sérgio Moro lied about him being given the apartment by a big construction firm as a kickback, Press TV reported.

In a statement released late Saturday, Pablo Villaca, of the People’s Committee for the Defense of Lula and Democracy, said: “(Judge Sergio) Moro dreams that the imprisonment of Lula will consecrate him. Instead, the image of Lula being carried in the arms of the people is circulating across the entire planet, said Telesure.

“I am the only human being to be put on trial for an apartment which does not belong to me,” the former leader said.

“I will comply with their warrant,” he said.

The former leader accused the judiciary and media of assisting a right-wing coup to prevent him from taking part in the upcoming presidential elections.

The 72-year-old veteran politician said he wanted to go to prison and had rejected multiple suggestions of fleeing or seeking asylum abroad.

“I want to face them and look at them in their eyes,” he said, referring to his accusers.

Lula vowed to continue his fight for proving his innocence, saying, “You’ll see that I will come out of this bigger, stronger”.

If Lula is jailed, he will not be able to run for president another time, as he currently wishes to.

Under Brazilian electoral law, a presidential candidate is forbidden from running for office for eight years after being found guilty of a crime, though some exemptions have been made in the past.

The ultimate decision about Lula, however, would be made by the top electoral court if and when Lula officially files to be a candidate.

He led Brazil in two four-year terms as president from 2003 to January 2011 and left office with an approval rating higher than 80 percent.

While he has a lead in opinion polls for the October presidential election, the former president likely would not be allowed to run.

According to opinion polls, other candidates, Ciro Gomes and Marina Silva, would gain the most from Lula not running in October.

H.M