El Salvador seizes properties in case against ex-president

Prosecutors in El Salvador have seized 61 properties linked to a massive corruption case against exiled former president Mauricio Funes, accused of embezzling USD 351 million from state coffers.

State prosecutors Wednesday said they seized real estate worth over USD 24 million, including shops, offices, luxury homes and a ranch.

"The properties are passing provisionally under the control of the state," the attorney general's office said in a statement.

Nicaragua granted Funes and his family asylum in 2016, and this month refused a Salvadoran Supreme Court request to extradite the former president.

Funes -- president of the Central American country from 2009 until 2014 -- had argued that he was the victim of political persecution.

The real estate seized on Wednesday was held in the name of relatives, friends and former employees of the former president, including his girlfriend Ada Mitchell Guzman and business magnate Miguel Menendez.

Prosecutors seized 24 other properties last year. Funes brushed aside the move in a Twitter message Wednesday, saying the properties belonged to Menendez's companies and "are not mine and they are not linked to me".

Attorney General Douglas Melendez said last year Funes was responsible for "outrageous acts of corruption, where public funds were extracted to the order approximately of $351 million".