 Nicaraguan police have stormed into the home of opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro, escalating a political battle ahead of elections later this year, in which longtime leftist president Daniel Ortega is seeking to hold on to power. The police placed Chamorro on the house arrest according to Chamorro's brother Carlos Chamorro, who is a journalist and continued to occupy the property in the capital, Managua, after raiding it more than five hours earlier. Social media and local television broadcasts live images of police entering and surrounding Chamorro's home earlier on Wednesday, in which police could be seen using force to eject other journalists who had arrived to cover the scene. The police action comes in the wake of prosecutors seeking Chamorro's arrest for morning laundering and other crimes according to judicial authorities.