Guatemalan president’s brother, son detained in graft probe

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan prosecutors detained the brother and son of President Jimmy Morales on Wednesday in a case of alleged corruption.

A U.N. anti-graft commission said they are suspected of submitting about $23,000 worth of false receipts in an alleged tax fraud.

The president’s brother, Samuel, told reporters at the courthouse that he is co-operating with the investigation and said he is innocent.

Attorney General Thelma Aldana said she also sought a warrant for the president’s son Jose Manuel Morales Marroquin, 23, but he appeared voluntarily for questioning.

National Civil Police spokesman Jorge Aguilar said later that Morales Marroquin “was arrested and put at the disposition of a judge” after presenting himself to prosecutors.

A judge ordered the men held while prosecutors investigate.

The president stuck to his daily schedule.

“As family, all support,” Jimmy Morales told reporters at the inauguration of a school in southern Guatemala. “And all support for the law as a citizen president.”

His official Twitter profile said: “The rule of law must prevail above all things.”

Guatemalan prosecutors backed by the U.N. commission have brought a string of anti-corruption cases, most notably against former President Otto Perez Molina.