Arrest warrant for ex-president of El Salvador

The High Court of El Salvador issues an arrest warrant for ex-president Francisco Flores.

He may have fled the country after being accused of misappropriating millions of dollars donated by Taiwan.

Current president, Mauricio Funes, claims Flores (image above) received up to 15 m $ in donations from Taiwan, without accounting for them.

A Salvadoran judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former president Francisco Flores, who was accused of misappropriating millions of dollars donated by Taiwan.

The court also ordered the seizure of Flores's assets including several homes, cars and boats, said the former president's lawyer, Edgar Morales.

Flores, who held power of his country between 1999 and 2004, was investigated by congress and the attorney general's office in the wake of allegations by the current president, Mauricio Funes, that Flores received up to $15m (£9m) in donations from Taiwan without accounting for them.

President Funes claimed Taipei donated the money to El Salvador in the last months of Flores's presidency, in 2003 and 2004. Flores has said he accepted money but did nothing inappropriate, passing it on through the proper channels.

The legislature speaker, Sigfrido Reyes, has asked Panama to help locate Flores, after a Panamanian media outlet reported that Flores was there. El Salvador's attorney general, Luis Martinez, told the broadcaster TCS last month that Flores was wanted for embezzlement, illicit enrichment and disobedience