Police searched the home of Brazil's powerful ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and detained him for questioning Friday in a probe into a huge corruption scheme. 


Agents searched his house in Sao Paulo, the offices of the Lula Institute, and houses of family members and associates, said Jose Chrispiniano, a spokesman for Lula and his institute. 


Prosecutors said Lula was being targeted as part of the Operation Car Wash probe into an embezzlement and bribery conspiracy centered on state oil company Petrobras. 


"About 200 federal police and 30 auditors served 44 warrants, including 33 warrants for search and seizure and 11 for detention for questioning," prosecutors said in a statement. 


The operations in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Sao Paulo states involved probes into "corruption and money laundering, among other crimes practiced by various people in the context of the Petrobras criminal scheme." 


Lula, who was president from 2003-2010, remains one of Brazil's most influential figures and his fate is closely linked to that of his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, and the future of the ruling Workers' Party. 


Chrispiniano called the search, in which agents were backed by armed officers, "arbitrary, illegal and unjustified

Source: NNA