By Hannatu Sadiq
The former President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has been jailed following violation of court orders.
A prosecutor speaking on condition of anonymity and the spokesman of the former president’s party, Djibril Ould Bilal, confirmed his detention on Tuesday without citing the reason.
The decision was made on Tuesday night by a judge in charge of investigating alleged corruption charges.
This comes days after the former president’s refusal to report to the police, as was required by the conditions attached to his house arrest.
In March, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was charged alongside two former Prime ministers and several businessmen of corruption, money laundering, and illicit enrichment.
A state prosecutor involved with the investigation in March said cash and assets worth the equivalent of about 96 million euros ($115m) had been seized.
After the 64-year-old came to power in a coup, His presidency in the conservative West African state lasted from 2008 to mid-2019.
He was then succeeded by his former right-hand man and ex-defense minister Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
In April, Aziz attempted to salvage his political career by joining a small opposition party, Ribat National, after being expelled from the ruling Union for the Republic (UPR) party, which he founded.
The former president of Mauritania denies all the allegations saying he is being persecuted in a bid to hijack his political goals, and has vowed he will not go into exile.
His lawyers have recurrently stated he should have been granted immunity under Article 93 of the Constitution.
Since he stopped ruling the West African state in 2019, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has been investigated for his actions during his 10 years as the head of the state, which culminated in a year-long probe, that lead to assets worth 114 million dollars being seized in March.
