Former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was heard Monday by the police to respond to "strong presumptions of bad governance and misappropriation of public property" , we learned from a security source. "The police went to the home of former President Ould Abdel Aziz to call on him to respond to investigators, but he did not want to accompany her, promising to join her, which he did time after, ” this source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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The ex-Mauritanian president is the subject of "strong suspicions of bad governance and misappropriation of public property," added this source. It was not possible to know in the early evening whether the hearing of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, which according to this source began in the afternoon at the headquarters of the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), was continuing . President Aziz took power in this poor West African country of 4.5 million people in a military coup in 2008, then won the presidential election in 2009, followed by another in 2014 .
The current president, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, who succeeded him in August 2019, was his chief of staff and Minister of Defense. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has since been marginalized by the new power. A parliamentary commission, charged in January to shed light on several cases during his years at the head of state, transmitted in early August its report to the Mauritanian justice, which after a preliminary investigation may possibly open an investigation. The new head of state immediately proceeded to a cabinet reshuffle, dismissing four ministers, including the head of government Ismaïl Ould Bedda Ould Cheikh Sidiya, in order to "give them the time they need to prove their innocence" , according to the secretary general of the presidency, Adama Bocar Soko.
Among the files studied by the parliamentary committee are the management of oil revenues, the sale of State estates in Nouakchott, the liquidation of a public company which ensured the supply of foodstuffs or the activities of a Chinese company. fishing, Pully Hong Dong, according to parliamentary sources. Former President Aziz ignored a summons from the parliamentary committee in early July. The deputies then voted at the end of July a law establishing a High Court of Justice, competent to judge the Head of State and the ministers in the event of "high treason" .