Inquiry into former president's governance resonates in Mauritanian press
Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - As the week comes to a close, the story that resonated most in the Mauritanian press this week was the summons to former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (2008-2019) by a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CEP).
The Commission sought a hearing, originally scheduled for last Thursday, on his governance, including the allegedly irregular awarding of several dozen contracts to relatives over the past decade.
The former head of state did not appear and thus stood the MPs up.
Le Quotidien de Nouakchott (Nouakchott Daily) on Thursday asked on the front page: 'Will Aziz be forced to appear?', publishing the contents of the summons to appear for the MPs addressed to the former head of state.
Under the headline 'High Treason', Wednesday's weekly Le Calame devoted an editorial to the same case.
The newspaper said the "noose is closing around former president Mohamed ould Abdel Aziz, who has already been summoned by the CEP and has already heard his three prime ministers and several members of his government," saying he "will have a lot of trouble justifying himself, as his former aides have all overwhelmed him by acknowledging on many occasions that the orders in the sensitive cases for which they were summoned came directly from him.
The newspaper also reported that the Emir of Qatar had finally refused a proposal that an island, 100 km north of Nouakchott, should be sold to him, which the MPs could use as the basis for a charge of "high treason," the only offence that could lead to the prosecution of a president under articles 92 and 93 of the constitution.
As for Tuesday's daily L'Authentique asked: "Will Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz be held accountable for his actions?"
This newspaper described "the long-awaited scenario of a Mohamed ould Abdel Aziz at the bar of the accused, the former president is expected to be involved in several cases and deals linked to the 11 years he spent in power".
-0- PANA SAS/JSG/MTA/AR 11July2020
