Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defied a judge's order to turn himself in to police on Friday and start serving a 12-year prison sentence for bribery that would likely end his hopes of regaining the presidency. Workers Party leader Gleisi Hoffmann said Lula would take part in a Saturday morning mass at the union headquarters to commemorate the birthday of his late wife Marisa. Lula's legal team filed a late Friday petition with the Supreme Court to quash the prison order, after losing a last-minute plea to an appeals court. Hundreds of supporters, including workers, students and land rights activists, filled the street outside the union headquarters, cheering defiant speeches calling the case a political witch hunt. But Cassio Goncalves, a labour safety specialist at the union headquarters, said he and fellow members of the Workers Party had not considered alternatives in the presidential race.

Source: dna April 07, 2018 08:07 UTC