Lula behind bars: Brazil’s former president taken to prison to serve 12-year sentence for corruption
A jail cell with special conditions by the standards of Brazil’s often violent, desperately overcrowded prisons – including a hot private shower and toilet – awaited him
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent Sunday as Brazil’s first ex-president to be imprisoned for a common crime – and his cell was in the headquarters of the giant anti-graft probe that brought him down.
The first day of Lula’s 12-year sentence marked the downfall of once one of the world’s most popular politicians.
Although Brazilian presidents of recent history have routinely ended up in trouble – impeached, brought down by a coup and even one suicide – Lula is the first to have been convicted of corruption and locked up.
His new home is a roughly 160 square foot (15 meter square) cell in the federal police headquarters in Curitiba, the southern city where the “Car Wash” probe is based.
Named after a service station where agents initially uncovered a relatively small money laundering operation, “Car Wash” has turned into one of the world’s biggest ever examples of such a probe, netting scores of top politicians, some of Brazil’s richest businessmen, and sending shock waves through Latin America.
