AP
Jader Barbalho File photo

Brazilian police have arrested the country's former Senate president on charges of corruption and fraud.

Jader Barbalho, who also once headed the country's largest political party, was detained Saturday in the Amazonian city of Belem after officials in the neighboring state of Tocantins issued a warrant for him.

Mr. Barbalho resigned from his Senate seat in October to avoid a likely impeachment that would have stripped him of the right to run for public office for the next eight years. However, his loss of immunity cleared the way for the charges.

The corruption case involves questionable loans made by the Amazon Development Agency, known as Sudam, which was recently shut down. In one of many possible irregularities, Mr. Barbalho's former wife is reported to have received a grant for a frog farm which investigators say was largely abandoned. Police have arrested several other people in the case, including the former head of the agency, Jose Arthur Tourinho.

Mr. Barbalho previously stepped down from the Senate presidency but had held on to his Senate seat to keep his immunity from criminal prosecution.

Several other politicians close to the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso have also been forced to resign in recent months due to corruption cases.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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