The prosecution of a former chief is unprecedented in Mauritania and very uncommon in Africa.
Former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has gone on trial, accused of amassing a bootleg private fortune throughout his 11 years in energy.
Aziz, a 66-year-old former normal, appeared in court docket on Wednesday within the capital, Nouakchott, together with 9 different defendants, together with former prime ministers, ministers and businessmen. They face costs that embody abuse of workplace, affect peddling, cash laundering and illicit enrichment.
Proceedings started with a roll name of the defendants. When his title was known as, Aziz, wearing a blue robe, rose and raised his hand. The defendants have been positioned in a metallic cage-like stand within the courtroom as lots of of police stood guard outdoors.
Aziz, a dealer’s son who got here to energy in a cold coup, stepped down in 2019 after two phrases through which he defused violence from armed teams that has swept throughout different international locations within the Sahel.
He was succeeded by his former right-hand man, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, within the first switch of energy between elected leaders within the historical past of a rustic marked by army coups and upheaval. However inside a month of the handover, allegations emerged of economic misdealings.
Aziz is suspected of syphoning cash from state contracts or the sale of actual property and amassing a fortune equal to greater than $72m.
He has denied the allegations towards him however refused to reply investigators’ questions concerning the supply of his wealth.
He describes himself because the sufferer of score-settling and argues he has immunity from prosecution beneath the structure.
“He fully rejects the accusations towards him,” one in all his attorneys, Taleb Khayar Ould Med Mouloud, stated earlier than the trial.
“Numerous folks have grounds for hating him, together with the Muslim Brothers, which he threw in another country,” Maloud stated.
Legal professionals say the trial is prone to final weeks and even months.
Ghazouani, who can also be a former normal, performed a key function in Aziz’s profitable technique towards the armed teams.
As late as December 2019, Ghazouani described his former boss as “my brother, my pal”.
However the next 12 months, Aziz’s woes started.
A parliamentary investigation was opened into monetary dealings throughout his presidency. It delved into oil revenues, gross sales of state property, the winding-up of a public firm answerable for meals provides and the actions of a Chinese language fishing firm.
He was expelled from the ruling Union for the Republic get together.
Based on native experiences, Aziz was arrested on the eve of the trial for refusing to report back to the police. French broadcaster RFI additionally reported that his passport was confiscated as he was about to fly from Nouakchott to Paris this month.
The prosecution is unprecedented in Mauritania, a big, conservative desert state that gained independence from France in 1960. The case can also be extraordinarily uncommon in Africa as an entire.
Mauritanians interviewed by the Agence France-Presse new company stated they hoped the trial would set a brand new benchmark within the struggle towards graft of their nation.
The nation is ranked a lowly a hundred and fortieth out of 180 within the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index by the organisation Transparency Worldwide.
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