Brazil's Lula sent to jail after standoff with cops

Leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent yesterday 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 cell in the federal police headquarters in Curitiba.

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.

Lula was found guilty last year of taking a luxury apartment as a bribe from a construction company and is "Car Wash's" biggest scalp -- though Lula says the conviction was rigged.

The former two-term president arrived by police helicopter on the roof of the lock-up in Curitiba late Saturday.

A jail cell with extremely good conditions by the standards of Brazil's often violent, desperately overcrowded prisons -- including a hot private shower and toilet -- awaited him.

With Lula almost certainly knocked out of the presidential election, the race is likely to be thrown wide open. In polls, he currently scores more than double his nearest rivals.

The next potentially explosive legal development could come as early as next Wednesday, when local media report that the Supreme Court may revisit the current law on incarceration during appeals.