Guatemala starts probe into bribery allegations linked to president

FILE PHOTO: Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei attends a news conference with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured), at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, during Harris' first international trip as Vice President to Guatemala and Mexico, June 7, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Guatemala have begun an investigation into allegations that Russian businessmen paid a bribe to President Alejandro Giammattei to obtain a dock in one of the country's main ports, the attorney general's office said on Friday.

Juan Luis Pantaleon, spokesman for the Guatemalan attorney general's office, said anti-corruption prosecutors had opened the probe, underlining that Giammattei was not currently under investigation because no impeachment proceedings had begun.