Mauritania's Former President Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

Mauritania’s Former President Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison Mauritania Mauritania’s former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz on Wednesday saw his sentence tripled to 15 years and was fined $3 million after he appealed a corruption conviction, in what analysts say is one of the few cases where an African leader has been held accountable for robbing the state, Africanews reported. Aziz, a former military general who helped lead two coups before serving as president from 2009 to 2019, was found guilty and sentenced in 2023 for money laundering and self-enrichment. Investigators say he accumulated over $70 million in assets while in power, according to the Associated Press. The court on Wednesday also cleared six senior officials who had served in Aziz’s administration but upheld a previous two-year prison sentence for his son-in-law on charges of influence peddling. According to the verdict, the “Errahma” (Mercy) Foundation, led by Aziz’s son, is ordered to be dissolved, and his assets will be seized by the government. Aziz’s legal team called the charges politically motivated, accusing current President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazouani of a power play. Aziz and Ghazouani were allies until Ghazouani became president in 2019 in what was the country’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. Tensions escalated when Aziz tried to take over a major political party after leaving office. In 2020, a parliamentary commission initiated a corruption investigation targeting Aziz and other officials. Share this story