Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrested in court

Party officials say ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested while on trial in Islamabad on a series of corruption charges.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party officials said he was arrested on Tuesday in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad as he stood trial.

Khan faces several corruption charges.

Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said Khan, 72, was arrested at the courthouse by agents of the national anti-corruption bureau, the National Accountability Bureau.

Khan was ousted in a vote of no confidence last April. He claimed the process was illegal and a Western conspiracy and campaigned against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, demanding early elections.

Chaudhry said Khan was dragged out of court and put into a police car. He said the former premier was now in the custody of security forces, and he called the arrest a “kidnapping.”

Pakistani independent television GEO aired footage of Khan being dragged by security forces towards the armored personnel carrier that had taken him away.

Khan’s side immediately complained to the Islamabad High Court, which requested a police report explaining the allegations of Khan’s arrest.

Anti-corruption body officials said Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau last week issued an arrest warrant for Khan in a separate corruption case in which he received no bail, which would have protected him from arrest under the country’s law.

Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khan would appear before an anti-bribery tribunal later Tuesday.