Accused former Nicaraguan president stripped of immunity

Thousands of people braved torrential rain and chanted for justice as Nicaragua's parliament took a historic vote paving the way for the former president Arnoldo Aleman to face charges for the theft of nearly $100m (£64m) of state funds.

Mr Aleman, who ended his five-year stint as president in January this year to become leader of congress, has benefited from an immunity from prosecution that these positions provide.

Mr Aleman, his sister, brother, daughter and 10 members of his former administration were charged in August with money laundering, embezzlement and abuse of public funds.

The $100m is the total of frauds uncovered so far, state prosecutors have said.

It is equivalent to the annual health budget in Nicaragua, Latin America's second poorest country.

Until this week Mr Aleman had controlled a narrow majority in congress and had successfully blocked two attempts to strip him of immunity. But two defections tipped the balance recently and the new majority voted on Thursday to replace him as leader of congress and dissolve the special committee handling the immunity issue.

The committee, chaired by Mr Aleman and made up of deputies loyal to him, had rejected the investigating magistrate's requests to remove Mr Aleman's immunity.

Mr Aleman immediately declared the vote "without validity" and "a terrorist act". He said he would appeal.

Outside the congress building, several thousand Sandinista supporters gathered in the rain in a protest called by the former Sandinista president Daniel Ortega to call for Mr Aleman to face justice.

Jubilation greeted the news of the result. Threats of a bloodbath by hardline supporters of Mr Aleman, many of them former Contra fighters, were averted by a big police presence.

Enrique Bolanos, Nicaragua's president, declared a war on corruption shortly after he took over from Mr Aleman.