RIO DE JANEIRO: Police on Wednesday arrested a controversial former governor in Rio de Janeiro as part of an ongoing investigation into voter fraud during recent municipal elections.
The former governor, Anthony Garotinho, has been serving as municipal secretary in Campos dos Goytacazes, a city north of Rio where his wife, Rosinha Matheus, another former governor, is serving as mayor. Both, despite repeated denials of wrongdoing by each, have been frequent targets of corruption allegations.
Brazil's federal police, which arrested Garotinho in the capital city of Rio, confirmed his detention in a brief statement. A spokesman for the city of Campos said the mayor's office did not yet have any information about the arrest.
Although Garotinho and Matheus are no longer as prominent as they were in recent decades in Brazilian politics, the couple once enjoyed strong support in Rio's sprawling suburbs and many other blue-collar areas across the country, particularly among some Evangelical Christians.
Garotinho in 2002 surprised many when he made a strong showing in the first round of Brazil's presidential elections. One of their nine children, Clarissa, now serves in Congress.
In recent years, however, Garotinho and Matheus, each as governor and as municipal officials in Campos, have been known as much for controversy and investigations into corruption and voter fraud as for their past electoral success. An electoral court recently found fraud related to Matheus' 2012 election as mayor of Campos.
It ordered her to step down, but she remains in the office, pending an appeal, according to the city spokesman.
Garotinho's arrest followed detentions of a handful of other suspects in the more recent fraud investigation, related to municipal elections carried out last month.
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