Police placed former President Arnoldo Aleman under house arrest at his home in the Nicaraguan capital after lawmakers voted to strip him of his immunity from corruption charges.

Authorities were to escort Aleman to court Friday to hear a judge read charges that he stole nearly $100 million in public funds during his presidency, which ended in January.

The legislature stripped Aleman of his immunity in a 47-45 vote on Thursday, and police confined him to his house hours later.

Nine members of Aleman’s ruling Constitutionalist Liberal Party supported the motion, which marked the first time any president had been stripped of his immunity.

The rest of the lawmakers in Aleman’s party — including the former president himself — voted against the measure.

President Enrique Bolanos served as Aleman’s vice president but took office pledging to clean up the country’s corrupt government, a campaign that put him at direct odds with his predecessor.

In a national television address late Thursday night, Bolanos said he hoped Aleman “received a fair and open trial.”

Federal prosecutors allege the former president diverted state funds to Panamanian bank accounts controlled by his family and then funneled the money to Constitutionalist Liberal candidates.

Aleman became a lawmaker upon leaving office, and Thursday’s vote did not remove him from the legislature.

As the last lawmaker to speak before the vote, a visibly shaken Aleman called the accusations against him “a political witch hunt” and used a slide projector to address prosecutors’ charges one by one.

Bolanos said removing Aleman’s immunity would “behead the clans of corruption and intimidation once and for all.”

Aleman’s supporters in the legislature had blocked previous bills to strip the ex-president of his immunity, even though polls show that Nicaraguans overwhelmingly support putting Aleman on trial and the U.S. government has supported Bolanos’ corruption fight.

Rene Herrera, head of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, said Thursday that Bolanos was out to destroy his country’s political system and warned that the vote would “make it impossible to govern Nicaragua.”

Police officers gathered outside the legislature and at points throughout central Managua, bracing for demonstrations Aleman supporters said would flood the streets of Nicaragua’s capital in response to the vote. Those demonstrations never came.

Aleman’s daughter and two key aides to the former president also have been implicated in the case, but still enjoy immunity as sitting lawmakers. Legislators haven’t drafted resolutions to remove their immunity.

In September, a judge ordered Aleman’s sister and three other relatives of the ex-president arrested on charges they helped illegally embezzle state funds. It was the first time arrest warrants had been issued for relatives of any Nicaraguan president.

Aleman has also been accused of misspending $1.3 million in public funds that were destined for a state-controlled television station. He has denied any wrongdoing in that case.

Filadelfo Aleman, Newsday, December 13, 2002