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MAPUTO. – Former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza’s son was arrested at the weekend in connection with a US$2 billion government debt scandal, state-owned media and a judicial source said.

The arrest comes just over a month after three ex-Credit Suisse bankers were charged in the United States with fraud over their role in a 2013 deal in Mozambique that involved borrowing to fund projects including a state tuna fishery.

Ndambi Guebuza, the oldest of Guebuza’s four children, became the ninth person detained in the case, state-owned media AIM reported on Sunday.

Former president Guebuza could not be reached for comment.

In another development, a Reuters quoting a police source says five people including the ex-head of Mozambique’s intelligence services and the chairman of three firms linked to the country’s US$2 billion debt scandal were arrested on Friday.

The source said those arrested also included the ex-private secretary to former president Armando Guebuza, and that some possessions, including luxury cars, had also been seized.

“Acting on the order of the Attorney General’s Office… we made the arrests of five people,” the police source told Reuters by phone, without giving the reason for the arrests. “I cannot give you further details,” he said.

Antonio Carlos do Rosario, former director of Mozambique’s intelligence unit, was arrested alongside Teofilo Nhangumele, the chairman of state-run Proindicus, Ematum and Mozambique Asset Management, the police source said.

Reuters was not able to immediately contact the representatives of the individuals named by the source as being arrested.

The three state-run companies are at the centre of a US$2 billion fraudulent loan scandal that has already led to arrests in Britain, South Africa and the United States.

The loans were guaranteed by the Mozambican government, but it did not disclose them, prompting the International Monetary Fund and other donors to cut off support. – Reuters/Own correspondent