Slovak leader held

Vladimir Meciar, the controversial former prime minister of Slovakia, was arrested yesterday and charged with abuse of power and fraud during his period in office in the 1990s.

Police commandos surrounded his villa at Trencianske Teplice in central Slovakia just after dawn. After reading the fraud charges over a loudhailer, the police asked him to leave the building. When he refused, they blew open the door, and took him away.

For the past month he has refused police demands to answer questions in an investigation into the 1995 kidnapping of Michal Kovac Jr, the son of his arch-rival Michal Kovac, who was president of Slovakia between 1993 and 1998.

Mr Meciar was taken to the capital, Bratislava, and charged with abuse of power and the illegal payment of bonuses to his ministers, amounting to more than $300,000 (£190,000).

He was also fined for refusing to answer police questions.

The charges did not relate to the kidnapping.

By noon he was released, to the cheers of supporters who had gathered outside the police station.

A former boxer turned lawyer, Mr Meciar emerged from the 1989 Velvet Revolution which overthrew the Communist authorities. He founded his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) from one wing of Public Against Violence. He led Slovakia to its independence in 1993.

HZDS officials yesterday accused the current government, led by Mikulas Dzurinda, of state terrorism and vowed to hold public protests. The HZDS, which leads in the opinion polls with more than 25%, is pushing for an early election. The government survived an opposition vote of no confidence a week ago.

Mr Meciar dominated Slovak politics for most of the 1990s, winning consecutive terms in office before being narrowly defeated by a coalition of four centre parties in 1998.

His years of power were marred by growing international condemnation and isolation, and a series of scandals which peaked with the kidnapping affair.

On August 31 1995 Michal Kovac Jr was found bruised and dazed in the back of his car just across the Austrian border.

He said he had been attacked by masked men on his way to work, beaten up, and forced to drink a bottle of whisky. Mr Kovac was arrested by the Austrian police, as he was wanted for fraud, which he claims was an attempt to frame him.

At his trial in Austria in 1996, an agent of the Slovak Secret Service, Oszkar Fegyveres, who claimed he had taken part in the kidnapping, gave evidence in Mr Kovac's defence, and the judge ruled that Mr Kovac was "kidnapped to Austria against his will", and set him free.

A subsequent police in vestigation in Slovakia ended when a key witness, a former policeman called Robert Remias, died when his car exploded in April 1996. At the same time, another police official, Peter Vacok, accused the government of blocking the investigation.

The current government has always accused Mr Meciar and his secret service chief, Ivan Lexa, of ordering the kidnapping to embarrass President Kovac.

In March 1998 Mr Meciar ordered an amnesty for all those responsible for the kidnapping, but the case was reopened when the opposition won power.

Mr Lexa was later detained but released on bail. No date has been given for the trial of Mr Meciar and Mr Lexa.