TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Honduras' anti-corruption prosecutor is pressing for more charges against former President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a coup last year.
Leonardo Orellana told reporters Wednesday he has asked a criminal court to charge Zelaya for allegedly diverting $1.5 million in government welfare funds to his campaign for a referendum on reforming the constitution.
Soldiers escorted the left-leaning president out of Honduras at gunpoint after he defied a Supreme Court order to drop plans for the vote.
Critics say he was trying to extend his rule by lifting a ban on presidential re-election, as his ally Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela. Zelaya denies such intentions, saying he was trying to shake up a political system dominated by a few wealthy families.
Orellana said other charges tied to the alleged diversion of funds include fraud, falsifying public documents and abuse of authority. Orellana also is asking Judge Elvira Meza to file the same charges against three of Zelaya's Cabinet ministers and his former deputy minister of finance.
The government already charged Zelaya with abuse of power and treason over his defiance of the Supreme Court order.
Congress voted to approve amnesty for both Zelaya and the military leaders who ordered his ouster - but the final say lies with Meza, who told The Associated Press she would make her decision this week about whether to charge Zelaya and order his arrest.
Zelaya could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday, and supporters declined to comment. In the past, he has called charges against him politically motivated.
The former president has been in exile in the Dominican Republic since Jan. 27, when his constitutional term ended and he left the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa where he had taken refuge in September after making a surprise return to the country.
The coup last June received near-universal international condemnation, but months of pressure, including the suspension of U.S. aid, failed to put Zelaya back in office.
Current President Porfirio Lobo won election in a regularly scheduled vote in November and took office last month.
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