PAPUA New Guinea’s Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Ano Pala, was arrested and charged with abuse of office and misappropriation on Tuesday night, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests in the country this week.

Mr Pala was detained by the police anti-fraud and corruption unit at Port Moresby Airport as he returned to the country on a flight from Brisbane, Australia.

After five hours of questioning, Mr Pala was charged with 15 counts of abuse of office and 15 counts of misappropriating public funds totalling $US1.02million ($F2.11m).

The unit’s Chief Superintendent, Matthew Damaru, said Mr Pala was charged after investigations uncovered the misuse of public funds for his own use and that of two private companies.

After he was released on bail late on Tuesday night, Mr Pala told the Post Courier newspaper that he denied the charges.

It was the latest in a series of arrests this week related to a major fraud case enveloping the office of the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

The anti-fraud unit appears to be a step closer to arresting the prime minister, but there’s an indefinite wait on a procedural hearing over the warrant.

Mr Damaru said police were patiently dealing with the many legal challenges that had been mounted since 2014 by Mr O’Neill’s lawyers to prevent his arrest.