Top judges support probe over graft

Senior judges in Brazil voiced concern on Saturday over the detention of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, even as they threw their support behind the sweeping corruption investigation that threatens to topple his embattled successor.

Lula's three hours of questioning in police custody on Friday was the highest profile development in the two-year-old probe focused on state oil firm Petrobras.

The detention of the 70-year-old Lula, Brazil's first working-class president, shocked his supporters. His 2003-10 government helped lift an estimated 40 million Brazilians out of poverty.