Former Mauritanian president sent to prison accused of corruption

The Mauritanian judiciary decided to imprison former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (2008-2019) for his involvement in a corruption case during his term in office, a judicial source told Efe. 

This decision was notified to Abdel Aziz by a magistrate who called the former president on Tuesday at noon, acting at the request of the prosecutor of the Republic.

The same source explained that Abdel Aziz was imprisoned for refusing to go to a police station last Sunday to sign in, a condition that was imposed on him after he was recently placed under house arrest. 

The former president should report three times a week to a police station near his home, but last Sunday Abdel Aziz did not fulfil this condition and went to the Prosecutor's Office to protest against the action of the police who forbade him to go to the police station accompanied by many people.

Abdel Aziz will be temporarily detained at the headquarters of the Mauritanian General Directorate of Security while awaiting the negative result of the coronavirus test carried out on the former president, before being sent to one of the country's prisons, the same source added. 

The former Mauritanian president was charged on 11 March with "embezzlement, money laundering and illicit enrichment", in an unprecedented decision in the country's history. 

Along with him, a dozen high-ranking officials and businessmen from his entourage were also summoned by the courts for the same offences, but no trial date has yet been set for them. 

The prosecution of Aziz began in December 2019 after the formation of a parliamentary commission that was charged with investigating economic crimes committed between 2008 and 2019, a period that corresponds to his presidential term.