Arrested El Salvadoran ex-president has brain damage

In this Oct 29, 2003, file photo, former Francisco Flores, president of El Salvador, speaks at the Americas Conference, in Coral Gables, Fla. According to his lawyer Yanira Ticas, Flores suffered a stroke on Sunday, Jan. 24,2016 and is reported to be in a coma at a hospital in San Salvador after suffering a brain hemorrhage and undergoing emergency surgery. AP Photo

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador—El Salvador’s former president Francisco Flores, who faces trial accused of embezzling millions of dollars in aid money for earthquake victims, has irreversible brain damage after suffering a stroke, doctors said Thursday.

Flores, who was under house arrest, was rushed to a hospital Sunday after having a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body and he has been in a coma ever since.

“The patient has irreversible neurological damage,” a team of specialists at Rosales hospital in San Salvador told the court where Flores faces trial.

He has undergone several operations, his lawyers say.

Flores, 56, is accused of stealing $15 million donated by Taiwan for victims of a 2001 earthquake.

El Salvador’s president from 1999 to 2004, he turned himself in in 2014 to respond to the allegations, which he denies.

He had previously been hospitalized in December for possible bleeding in the digestive tract, and had also undergone treatment for blood clots.

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