Prosecutors in Guatemala say they have detained former president Alvaro Colom in a corruption case.

Colom governed from 2008 to 2012, and is the latest in a series of former presidents to face legal problems.

The special prosecutor for a case of questionable public bus purchases said Colom was arrested on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval said Colom’s former finance and interior ministers were also detained.

A customs fraud scandal that allegedly sent kickbacks to then-president Otto Perez Molina and vice president Roxana Baldetti led both to resign in 2015.

They have been jailed awaiting trial, but more than 100 defence filings have delayed the trial.

Alfonso Portillo, Guatemala’s president from 2000 to 2004, was extradited to the US and pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in 2014. He was sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

He admitted accepting $2.5 million in bribes from the government of Taiwan to continue to recognise the Asian nation diplomatically