The trial of former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz opened Wednesday, January 25, 2023, in Nouakchott, offering the exceptional image of a former head of state placed in a cage-like box to answer for illicit enrichment.
Tried for abusing his power to amass a huge fortune, the man who led from 2008 to 2019 this largely desert country of 4.5 million people twice the size of France stood up and waved when his name was called, then sat down behind the gates in the front row of 10 defendants present.
Former presidents, prime ministers, ministers and businessmen, they are charged with "illicit enrichment", "abuse of office", "influence peddling" or "money laundering" for an unknown period of time. Mr. Aziz, 66 years old, denies the facts and cries of a plot to remove him from politics.
In a white boubou, a surgical mask concealing part of his bald head and his thin moustache, Mr. Aziz has silently followed the president's interminable efforts to stop the confusion of the setting up and to find a space on the concrete benches for the hundred or so lawyers present in the immense modern courtroom with the air of a bunker plunged into the darkness.
These delays do not detract from the extraordinary nature of the moment, including beyond this pivotal country between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa, which was once shaken by coups d'état and jihadist activities, but returned to stability under Mr. Aziz when trouble was brewing in the region.
Mr. Aziz is one of the few former heads of state to be held accountable for how he enriched himself while in power. His peers on trial in national or international courts are mostly on trial for blood crimes.
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: Ex-President of Mauritania Mohamed Abdel Aziz on Trial for Corruption){kind=link}
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