Former Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has finally surrendered himself to police authorities in the country in order to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence over charges of corruption as ordered by a court.

Lula had ignored the Friday 5pm deadline given by Justice Sergio Moro. But after attending an impromptu mass for his late wife on Sunday, he walked out of the Metal Workers Union building in Sao Paulo where he had been holed up for two days and was whisked away in a convoy of black police vehicles.

An earlier attempt to arrest Lula was foiled by a crowd of supporters who shielded him from being reached by the police. He will be taken to the southern city of Coritiba where he will begin serving the jail sentence.

Before giving himself up to the police, Lula was surrounded by hundreds of die-hard supporters, including leaders of his Workers’ Party, union workers and activists in the industrial suburb of Sao Paulo where he began his political career as a union official.