Mauritania: Former President released after a week’s detention

SANAA, Aug. 24 (YPA) – Mauritanian police on Monday released former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz after he was detained for corruption cases.

“The former president refused to answer the investigators’ questions, but he upholds his constitutionally guaranteed right and the immunity granted to him as a former president,” his lawyer Taqiullah Ould Aydah told the media.

On the details of his release, he noted that the arrest was outside the law and that he would not be subject to house arrest.

A group of politicians close to former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz condemned his interrogation by the economic crimes police as “a kidnapping carried out by the political police” in a “dangerous precedent, the first of its kind in our country and the region.”

Ould Abdel Aziz was summoned by the Economic Crimes Police on Monday evening (August 17th) and began questioning him about corruption suspicions contained in a parliamentary committee report tasked with investigating his rule.

This is the first time that a former president has been questioned in Mauritania.

E.M