Brazil’s ex-president Lula da Silva is temporarily released from prison to attend grandson’s funeral
- Former president has been imprisoned in the southern city of Curitiba, serving a 12-year sentence for a graft conviction
In January, when former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s brother died from cancer, the once exceedingly popular leader wanted the chance to leave prison to go to the funeral.
The embattled former president was jailed last year on corruption charges after serving as president from 2003 to 2011, and lower courts in Brazil argued that his attending the funeral could prompt security concerns. The Supreme Court later said he could see his brother’s body under specific circumstances to avoid public access, but it was too late to attend the funeral and Lula declined.
Now, just weeks later, Lula was granted brief leave from prison – this time to attend the burial of his 7-year-old grandson Arthur, who died from meningitis this week. Lula reportedly flew from Curitiba, where he is being held, to Sao Paulo to attend the services.
He left prison at 7am Saturday, and photos showed him waving to a crowd of people holding up their phones as he arrived at the Jardim da Colina cemetery for the funeral. Voice of America reported that Arthur had visited his grandfather in prison twice, and Gleisi Hoffman, leader of Brazil Workers’ Party, told the news outlet that Lula “cried several times” and was “downcast” about his grandson’s death.
When he was president, Barack Obama once referred to the now 73-year-old as “the most popular politician on Earth.” But Lula later found himself at the centre of a massive corruption probe, dubbed Operation Car Wash. The investigation targeted leaders across Latin America, and led to the unravelling of a large-scale corruption scheme in Brazil.