Former president of Mongolia arrested

ULAN BATOR - Former Mongolian President and current chairman of the opposition party Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Nambar Enkhbayar has been arrested on corruption charges, local media reported Friday.

The report said special agents of the country's independent anti-corruption agency Thursday night stopped Enkhbayar's car and attempted to arrest him, but were resisted by his bodyguards, who took him to a nearby house and holed themselves up in a compound.

Early Friday morning at around 6 am, about 300 reinforced police and plainclothes agents stormed the building, overpowered Enkhbayar's followers and arrested him.

Enkhbayar's followers clashed with the police and said that the agents threatened to fire at them, and that the former president's immunity was breached by police during the arrest.

Head of the agency's investigation department E.Amarbat told local media that Enkhbayar was being investigated for corruption charges but that he had never showed up for questioning and therefore the court had issued a permit for his arrest.

Enkhbayar was the first politician in the country who had held the office of president, prime minister and speaker of parliament.