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2nd LD: Brazil's ex-president Lula targeted in new anti-corruption probe

Xinhua, March 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil's federal police started Friday a new round of anti-corruption probe with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva being the main target.

Earlier in the day, police officers searched Lula's residence in Sao Paulo and the Lula Institute, an organization founded after the former president left office. They also searched a ranch and an apartment which investigators said belongs to Lula. The former president, however, denied his ownership of the property.

The operation is part of Brazil's massive anti-corruption campaign code-named Operation Car Wash, which aims to dismantle schemes of corruption in the government.

Lula was taken to the federal police station for questioning and was released three hours later. But he was not arrested or charged.

The Brazilian prosecutor said that the current investigations are not conclusive enough to lead to an imprisonment conviction for Lula.

Still, the fact that he was taken for questioning sparked suspicion that he is involved in a scandal.

The federal police said in a statement that, in the 24th phase of the Operation Car Wash, they continued to investigate the corruption scheme at state-controlled oil and gas giant Petrobras, started in early 2014, to determine the connection between scheme beneficiaries and former President Lula.

There is evidence that Lula had received assets in the Petrobras scheme through the allocation and renovation of a triplex apartment and a ranch in Atibaia, as well as luxury furniture, police said. Political contributions to the former president from companies involved in the Operation Car Wash Operation, are also under investigation.

The Lula Institute released a statement calling the police move "arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable" and "an aggression to the legal state."

Lula said earlier that though he visited the triplex apartment which the police said is owned by him, he did not finalize the purchase. The ranch in Atibaia, he said, belongs to a friend, and he just spent vacations there. Endit