Mongolia Arrests Former President

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia—Scores of police arrested Mongolia's former president, raiding a house in the capital at dawn Friday after he refused investigators' summons to answer questions about corruption charges, law enforcement officials said.

Anti-corruption investigators initially tried to arrest Enkhbayar Nambar on Thursday night. They stopped the former president's car but were foiled by his bodyguards who took him to a nearby compound, setting up a standoff that ended with the raid, police said.

Now an opposition politician, Mr. Enkhbayar was a formidable figure in the robust democracy of Mongolia, a resource-rich but largely poor country between China and Russia. Serving as prime minister and then president for most of a decade until losing office in 2009, he presided over a period of robust growth but also a widening wealth gap and, critics said, runaway corruption.

Mr. Enkhbayar was arrested for questioning in a serious corruption case, the head of the Independent Agency Against Corruption, E. Ambarbat, told reporters. Though he did not elaborate, the agency said the corruption involved the illegal privatization of a government-owned hotel.

"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," Mr. Ambarbat said.

While he and other authorities said the arrest was legal, having been backed by a court order, Mr. Enkhbayar's supporters said it violated the former president's immunity and was politically motivated.

After narrowly losing re-election as president in 2009, Mr. Enkhbayar had formed a new opposition party and was contesting a parliament seat in June elections.