Former FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu was provisionally released on Tuesday, a Barcelona court said, a day after he was arrested in a probe related to allegations of improper management and business corruption.

The statement said Bartomeu, president between 2014 and 2020, and his former adviser Jaume Masferrer, had made use of their right not to give a statement in court and the judge had agreed to their provisional release.

Bartomeu was among four connected arrested on Monday in what Catalan police called “an investigation into alleged crimes related to property and the socio-economic order”.

Barcelona CEO Oscar Grau and legal services director Roman Gomez Ponti were detained and later released on Monday while Bartomeu and Masferrer spent the night in a Barcelona police station.

The investigation began almost a year ago and remains active. It stemmed from a report in February 2020 by radio station Cadena Ser which revealed the club had hired firms to monitor social media activity while Bartomeu was president.

The arrests came less than a week before the club holds presidential elections.