The Porto Alegre regional court issued an arrest warrant. The 72-year-old has been given until 5 p.m. Friday (20:00GMT) to turn himself in to start serving his 12-year sentence for bribery.
On Wednesday, the Brazilian Supreme Court voted to put Lula in jail pending his appeal to overturn a graft conviction. Lula da Silva was sentenced to 9.5 years in jail on bribery charges last summer. In January, an appeals court upheld the ruling and added 2,5 years to the sentence.
After the Supreme Court voted to put the former president in jail, thousands of his supporters and opponents took to streets of the capital of Brasilia. Da Silva's jailing comes months before the presidential election in October, where the politician was the main frontrunner. However, the Workers' Party's lawmaker Paulo Teixeira said that Lula da Silva will be a candidate of the party.