Graft trial starts for former Guatemala leader

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - The embezzlement trial of former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo, accused of stealing millions of dollars of public funds and wanted in the United States, began Friday in a Guatemalan court.

Portillo, who led the poor Central American nation from 2000 to 2004, is accused of stealing $15 million of funds destined for the Defense Ministry and funneling it to personal bank accounts in the United States and Europe.

Before Portillo can be extradited to face charges of money laundering and embezzlement charges in New York, he must be tried in Guatemala.

Prosecutors in France are also investigating the former head of state on charges of laundering money in French bank accounts.

Portillo, who won office promising to redistribute wealth in a country where many people scrape by on tiny, remote farms, fled the country shortly after his four-year presidential term ended, and spent the next four years in Mexico.

He was extradited from Mexico to Guatemala in 2008 to face embezzlement charges, but was freed on bail.

Police detained him in January, a day after his indictment in New York, as he was trying to travel to neighboring Belize in a boat.

(Reporting by Sarah Grainger; Editing by Missy Ryan and Jerry Norton)