The prosecutor requested, on Tuesday, twenty years in prison against former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, on trial since January in Nouakchott for having abused his power in order to amass an immense fortune. “All the elements in the hands of justice prove the constitution of a crime,” argued the magistrate.
Accusing Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of having “accumulated a very large fortune that his legal income cannot justify” and of having exercised “commercial activities incompatible with his functions as President of the Republic” from 2008 to 2019, the prosecutor mentioned “illicit enrichment condemned by law.” He also demanded the confiscation of the property of the former head of state.
A fortune estimated at 67 million euros
According to the courts, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, 66, would have built up assets and capital estimated at 67 million euros at the time of his indictment, in March 2021. Without denying being rich, the former head of State, son of a trader, refused to explain the origin of his fortune and denounces a plot intended to exclude him from political life.
He is one of the few, among the former leaders prosecuted in court, to have to answer for illicit enrichment in the exercise of power. His peers tried by national or international justice are mainly for blood crimes, such as, elsewhere in West Africa, the former Guinean dictator Moussa Dadis Camara, on trial since September 2022.
During his indictment lasting approximately three hours, the prosecutor requested ten-year prison sentences against the two former prime ministers and two ministers, as well as the confiscation of their property. He requested five years in prison against the other defendants.
Descent into hell
After more than ten years at the head of this vast and poor Sahelian country of 4.5 million inhabitants, previously shaken by coups and jihadist actions but returned to stability when unrest spread to the rest of the region , the former president has experienced a descent into hell since Mohamed Ould Ghazouani came to power. The latter has always denied interference in the matter.
Former chief of staff and minister of defense, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has long been considered one of the former president’s most loyal companions. After preparing for his accession to power, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz gave way to him after elections, in the first transition not imposed by force in a country prone to coups since its independence.
Around forty defenders were to begin pleading this Tuesday. No details were provided as to the date of the judgment.
