Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva emerged as a potential contender in Brazil’s 2022 elections after a judge overturned his corruption convictions Monday.

Here is a list of key dates in the life of one of the world’s most popular politicians.

– October 27, 1945: Lula is born to a poor farming family in 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, having worked in the trade since the age of 14.

– 1978-80: At the height of Brazil’s 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: Lula becomes Brazil’s first leftist president, and the first to come from a working-class background, after winning the previous year’s election. Under his social programs 29 million Brazilians escape poverty, although inequality remains. He is reelected in 2006 for a term ending in 2010.

– 2005: He removes top Workers’ Party officials over corruption scandals.

– 2016: With corruption allegations against Lula mounting, the Supreme Court blocks his appointment as chief of staff to President Dilma Rousseff, his handpicked successor. She is then impeached in August over unrelated allegations of fudging the government’s accounts.

Also read: Brazil Supreme Court overturns Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva convictions

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

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

– April 5, 2018: After losing a bid to delay the start of his sentence, Lula is ordered to turn himself in within 24 hours. He defies the order but later agrees to comply.

– April 7, 2018: Shortly before midnight, Lula becomes an inmate at the federal police headquarters in the southeastern city of Curitiba.

– August 15, 2018: Lula’s party officially registers his presidential candidacy.

– August 31, 2018: A majority of Brazil’s electoral court bars Lula from running in the October election.

– September 11, 2018: The Workers’ Party names Fernando Haddad as a substitute candidate for Lula.

– October 28, 2018: Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is elected president.

– February 6, 2019: Lula is sentenced to nearly 13 years for accepting renovation work by two construction companies on a farmhouse in exchange for ensuring they won contracts with Petrobras.

– April 23, 2019: A Superior Court of Justice panel reduces Lula’s sentence to eight years and 10 months on appeal.

– November 7, 2019: The Supreme Court overturns a rule requiring convicted criminals to go to jail after losing their first appeal, paving the way for Lula’s release.

– November 8, 2019: Lula walks free from jail.

– March 8, 2021: A Supreme Court judge overturns all Lula’s convictions, ruling the court in Curitiba that issued them lacked jurisdiction.

The ruling restores his eligibility to run for office