Former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, in preventive detention since June in a case of alleged corruption, was admitted Wednesday evening to the military hospital of Nouakchott for “urgent careOne of his lawyers announced to AFP on Thursday, December 30.
Read alsoMauritania: ex-president Aziz forced to point to the police three times a week
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who led Mauritania from 2008 to 2019, “was transferred to this hospital for urgent care (…) We have not been able to meet him so far“, One of his lawyers Mohameden Ould Icheddou told AFP, calling on the authorities to evacuate his client abroad for treatment”intensive“. “Family members visited him and found his situation worrying, but stable”, Said Mohameden Ould Icheddou. He said he once again asked the judge for the provisional release of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, after his hospitalization.
The Nouakchott Court of Appeal in early November once again rejected a previous request for the provisional release of the former Mauritanian leader. In a statement released Wednesday evening, his family said “fear his physical liquidation“By the regime which has”failed in his attempts to liquidate him politically“.
In detention since June
The former head of state was charged in March with corruption, money laundering, illicit enrichment, squandering of public property, granting undue advantages and obstructing the conduct of justice. He was detained in June in a prison in Nouakchott for non-compliance with the measures of his judicial control and disturbing public order. Justice was seized in August 2020 of the report of a parliamentary commission of inquiry responsible for shedding light on alleged facts of corruption and embezzlement of public funds during the more than ten years of power of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The committee looked into several issues: management of oil revenues, sale of state estates, liquidation of a public company ensuring the supply of food to the country or the activities of a Chinese fishing company. The ex-president, who shouts at “settling scores», Always refused to speak to the examining magistrate. He considers himself protected by the immunity conferred on him, according to him, by the Constitution.