Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc'' Duvalier (C) is escorted by friends and the police from his hotel in Port-au-Prince, January 18, 2011. 
 
 PORT-AU-PRINCE | 
 
 PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti on Tuesday briefly detained former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, back from exile in France, and charged him with corruption, theft and abuses of power allegedly committed during his 15-year rule. 
 
 While a noisy crowd of his supporters protested outside the prosecutor's office, Duvalier, 59, was questioned over accusations that he stole public funds and committed human rights abuses after taking over as president in 1971. 
 
 Port-au-Prince Chief Prosecutor Aristidas Auguste said his office had filed charges against Duvalier of corruption, theft, misappropriation of funds and other alleged crimes committed during the former president's 1971-1986 period in power. 
 
 "His fate is now in the hands of the investigating judge. We have brought charges against him," Auguste told Reuters. 
 
 The charges must now be investigated by the judge who will decide whether a criminal case should go ahead. 
 
 After several hours of questioning, he left the prosecutor's office but was ordered to remain in the country at the disposition of judicial authorities. "He doesn't have the right to go anywhere," investigating judge Carves Jean said. 
 
 Duvalier, who fled Haiti in 1986 during a popular uprising, was earlier escorted by heavily armed police from the luxury hotel where he had stayed since his unexpected arrival on Sunday from France, after a quarter century in exile. 
 
 Smartly dressed in a blue suit and tie, but looking frail, he waved and smiled briefly to supporters at the hotel. The chubby cheeks that he had as a 19-year-old when he took power as the world's youngest head of state 25 years ago have sagged, showing the passage of time. 
 
 The former dictator's return to his earthquake-battered Caribbean homeland, the Western Hemisphere's poorest state, was a shock to Haitians and to foreign governments. The country is in the midst of a political crisis caused by chaotic and inconclusive elections held on November 28. 
 
 The political uncertainty comes on top of an ongoing cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,800 people and efforts to rebuild the crippled nation after the huge earthquake a year ago that claimed more than 316,000 lives. 
 
 "OPPORTUNITY ... FOR JUSTICE" 
 
 Human rights groups welcomed the detention but urged the Haitian authorities to fully investigate the full range of accusations against Duvalier. 
 
 Amnesty International Special Adviser Javier Zuniga said Duvalier, while ruling as "President-for-Life," had presided over a security apparatus which "carried out widespread and systematic human rights violations including torture, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances." 
 
 He said some of these abuses by state-employed thugs known as "Tonton Macoutes" amounted to "crimes against humanity." 
 
 "A cycle of impunity has prevailed for decades in Haiti, with victims of abuses and their families denied justice for way too long -- now the opportunity has come for justice, truth and reparations," Zuniga said. 

 Haitian police took ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier out of his hotel Tuesday without saying whether he was being detained for crimes committed under his brutal regime. 
 
 National police officers patrol a corridor at the hotel's floor where Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier is staying in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 18, 2011. According to... (Associated Press) 
 
 National police officers stand guard in front of the room of Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier at a hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 18, 2011. According to a police officer... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of the American States, talks with the press after meeting with Haiti's President Rene Preval at the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby-Doc" Duvalier, center, and his wife Veronique Roy are helped by a police officer as they are surrounded by reporters upon their arrival to the Toussaint Louverture... (Associated Press) 
 
 National police officers patrol the corridor of the floor of the hotel where Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier is staying in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 18, 2011. According... (Associated Press) 
 
 Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier waves to the press from a hotel balcony in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday Jan. 17, 2011. Duvalier ensconced himself Monday in a high-end hotel following... (Associated Press) 
 
 A contingent of police led the former dictator known as "Baby Doc" through the hotel and to a waiting SUV. 
 
 Duvalier, 59, was calm and did not say anything. Asked by journalists if he was being arrested, his longtime companion Veronique Roy, laughed but said nothing. 
 
 It came after he met in private with senior Haitian judicial officials met inside his hotel room amid calls by human rights groups and other for his arrest. 
 
 The country's top prosecutor and a judge were among those meeting with the former leader known as "Baby Doc" in the high-end hotel where he has been ensconced since his surprise return to Haiti on Sunday. 
 
 Dozens of Haitian National Police officers were posted inside and around the hotel, some of them in riot gear or guarding the stairwells. A police vehicle for transporting prisoners was parked in front of the hotel's main door and all non-police traffic was halted at the driveway. 
 
 Henry Robert Sterlin, a former ambassador under Duvalier who has said in recent days that he was speaking as a spokesman for the former dictator, told reporters at the scene he was shocked by the developments. "Let's see if they put him in prison," he said.
– Baby Doc Duvalier's homecoming to Haiti may not be going as smoothly as he hoped. Haitian police today took the former dictator from his hotel room, reports AP, though it remains unclear exactly what's going on. Earlier, a judge accompanied by officers questioned him in his room about allegations of looting the nation's treasury during his reign, notes Reuters. "He will be questioned and he will remain at the disposal of the judicial system," said a senior official. "They will determine whether to prosecute him." Duvalier said nothing as he was being led into the police vehicle, and his girlfriend only laughed when asked if he had been arrested. Human rights groups have been calling for just that ever since his surprise return over the weekend.