ALGIERS — Five Algerian billionaires, some of them close to former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika who quit over mass protests, have been arrested as part of an anti-graft investigation, state TV said on Monday.

The five are Issad Rebrab, considered the richest businessman in the energy-rich north African nation, and four brothers from the Kouninef family, it said.

Rebrab is chairman of the family-owned Cevital company, which imports raw sugar from Brazil and exports white sugar to Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Kouninef family is close to Bouteflika. There was no immediate statement from those arrested. — Reuters