Brazil’s ex-president Lula in dates

Sao Paulo (AFP) – Here are key dates in the life of Brazil’s ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, best known as Lula, who is appealing a conviction and prison sentence on corruption charges.

The Supreme Court rules Wednesday whether he should start serving a 12-year sentence or can remain free while pursuing appeals and another bid for the presidency at polls in October.

– October 27, 1945: Lula is born to a poor farming family in the Brazil’s northeast. His family moves when he is seven to the state of Sao Paulo to escape hunger.

– 1975: He becomes president of the metal workers’ union, a sector in which he has worked since the age of 14.

– 1978-80: At the height of the military dictatorship, Lula leads major strikes in the industrial suburbs and is jailed for a month for his role.

– 1980: Lula co-founds the leftist Workers’ Party (PT) and goes on to take part in the creation, in 1983, of the Unified Workers’ Central (CUT), which becomes Brazil’s largest trade union federation.

– 1986: He is elected to Congress.

– 2003: Becomes Brazil’s first leftist president, having won an election the previous year. He is re-elected in 2006 for a term ending in 2010.

– 2016: The Supreme Court blocks his appointment as chief of staff to president Dilma Rousseff, his handpicked successor. She is impeached in August after allegations of financial wrongdoing.

– July 2017: Lula is found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction company in return for contracts with state oil giant Petrobras. He is sentenced to 9.5 years behind bars.

– January 2018: He loses an appeal and his sentence is increased to 12 years and one month.