Rabat – Former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz denounced the “injustice” he went through after he was arrested for alleged corruption.
Police released the former Mauritanian president on Monday after a week of questioning over alleged embezzlement.
Following his release, Ouled Abdel Aziz maintained he was the victim of “a settling of old scores.”
“But I am going to defend myself,” he asserted.
The former Mauritania official did not reveal any names about his “enemies.”
The politician denounced that he spent seven days in “unjust, arbitrary detention, even though I voluntarily dropped to state security” after they came to take him.
Ouled Abdel Aziz said he did not respond to any questions.
“The procedure is illegal,” he said.
On Monday, Attorney Tagiouallah Aida said that no charges have been filed against the ex-president.
His passport, however, was confiscated and the former official is not allowed to leave Nouakchott.
Ouled Abdelaziz, 63, is not the only politician who faced questioning for alleged corruption. Several other former officials suspected corruption in his era had been questioned by authorities, Al Jazeera reported.
The list of interrogated former officials included the former official’s close “confidants.”
The former president served two terms as president since 2008. In August 2019, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazwani succeeded Ouled Ben Abdelaziz.
The corruption investigation of the former president is an unprecedented event in the country.
The decision to question the former president came after a parliamentary committee highlighted suspected practices.
The committee sent a report to judicial services in the country to carry out an investigation into the alleged involvement of the former president in corruption allegations.
