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MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — A man suspected of poisoning the traditional beer that killed more than 70 people has been arrested, Mozambican police said Wednesday.
Graciano Antonio was arrested while trying to flee, provincial police spokesman Luis Nudia said. He has been taken to the capital of the northeast Tete province, where he will be charged by the attorney general's office.
"Now the attorney general's office is investigating the man and which substance he used to poison the people and to know the real motives," said Nudia.
Nearly 200 people were hospitalized after drinking traditional beer at a funeral in the region last month, health authorities said. Pombe, a traditional Mozambican beer, is made from millet or corn flour and brewed for about two days.
The beer was believed to be poisoned with crocodile bile, a body fluid produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder, health authorities said, but experts have cast doubt on whether bile is poisonous.
Samples of the poisoned beer have since been sent to the United States and Germany, where the source of the contamination is being tested, the health ministry said.
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