Mauritania Ex-president Skips Oil-revenue Inquiry Hearing

Nouakchott, July 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jul, 2020 ) :Mauritania's former president on Thursday skipped a parliamentary hearing examining his management of oil revenues while in office, a spokesman said, adding that he is "not above the law".

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the West African state's ex-president, had this week refused to acknowledge receipt of a summons from the inquiry, established in January to investigate a range of issues from his time in office.

These include the management of oil revenues, the sale of state-owned property in the capital Nouakchott and the liquidation of a state-owned food company.

On Thursday, Abdel Aziz failed to attend the hearing.

"We gave him the chance to explain," said Lemrabott Ould Bennahi, the inquiry's spokesman.

"Former presidents are not above the law and can be interviewed," he added.

Abdel Aziz is a former general who first came to power in a coup in Mauritania in 2008. He was elected president the next year, then re-elected in 2014.

He did not seek re-election last year, when his former political ally, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, won the presidency.

The parliamentary inquiry cannot force Abdel Aziz's attendance.

Mauritania's parliament must now vote on whether to drop the inquiry into the former president, or to proceed to a legal case against him, according to law professor Lo Gourmo Abdoul.