Mongolia’s former president is arrested
Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar (L) and his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov(R) are pictured amongst Bulgarian honour guards during an official welcoming ceremony in Sofia on October 9, 2008.
Mongolia's former president Enkhbayar Nambar, currently the chairman of the country's opposition party, has been detained, BBC News reported. He had lead Mongolia as its prime minister and then president for nearly a decade, from 2000 until 2009, and now faces corruption charges.
On Thursday agents from the country's independent anti-corruption agency stopped Enkhbayar's car and tried to arrest him, but the efforts were "resisted" by Enkhbayar's bodyguards, China Daily reported. Early this morning, about 300 police officers then stormed a house he had been staying in. Enkhbayar's followers were in the building and clashed with police, but the officers overpowered the activists and arrested Enkhbayar.
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"We have been investigating the corruption case involving Enkhbayar for a year. However, he never showed up for questioning. We had asked him often to come for questioning," the head of the Independent Agency Against Corruption told the Associated Press.
Enkhbayar had lead the democracy of Mongolia during a time of "robust growth but also a widening wealth gap," with critics accusing Enkhbayar of corruption, the AP reported.
But Enkhbayar's supporters say the arrest was politically-motivated. About 1,000 members of the the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party attended a protest today demanding Enkhbayar's release, Xinhua News Agency reported.