Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was briefly detained for questioning on Friday in a federal investigation of a vast corruption scheme, fanning a political crisis that threatens to topple his successor, President Dilma Rousseff.
Lula's questioning in police custody was the highest profile development in a longrunning and sweeping graft probe centered on the state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA that has rocked Brazil's political and business establishment and deepened the worst recession in decades in Latin America's biggest economy.
The investigation threatens to tarnish the legacy of Brazil's most powerful politician, whose humble roots and anti-poverty programs made him a folk hero, by putting a legal spotlight on how his left-leaning Workers' Party consolidated its position since rising to power 13 years ago.