La Paz, BOLIVIA (AP) — A Bolivian judge on Friday issued a warrant for the arrest of former President Evo Morales after he failed to appear in court over a case alleging that he sexually abused a minor.

Morales, 65, is alleged to have had a child with a teenage girl in 2016 — a sexual relationship that would have constituted statutory rape under Bolivian law.

“There’s been a warrant ordered for his search and arrest,” said Judge Nelson Rocabado after a hearing in the southern region of Tarija, where the alleged victim lives.

Morales has denied the allegations and claimed he was a “victim” to legal warfare carried out by his ally-turned-political-rival President Luis Arce, and refused to appear in court.

The populist leader has barricaded himself in his fiefdom in Chapare, in central Bolivia, and lives in the headquarters of the coca growers’ unions protected by up to three security cordons to avoid his arrest.

Outside the courthouse on Friday a group of women who identified themselves as mothers carried banners that read “Evo Morales abuser, girls are not to be touched”. They demanded that justice be doled out.

The prosecutor handling the case, Sandra Gutierrez, said they would now investigate if the president had committed a crime by not appearing in court.