Sahara Media has learnt from private sources that the Mauritanian public prosecution opened a bank account, in which funds belonging to former president Mohamed O. Abdel Aziz are transferred.
These funds are related to assets, which are investigated on corruption and money laundering suspicions.
The sources said that the investigators in the judicial police, in charge of the preliminary inquiry, discovered many buildings, housing units, and markets owned by the former president or people close to him. These assets are believed to be acquired suspiciously.
The investigators asked all users of these assets, which are under investigation, to pay their monthly rent in a specific bank account pending the end of the investigation. The same thing applies to companies and stores.
The public prosecution has already issued a circular to many Mauritanian banks to monitor the movement of the bank accounts, owned by people under investigation, including the ex-president and former ministers.
The public prosecution has also frozen fund and assets owned by people accused of corruption by the parliamentary committee of inquiry at the beginning of this year. The committee’s report was referred to the government at the end of last July, after that to the public prosecution, where the preliminary investigation was launched by the police of economic and financial crimes.
During the investigation, the police of economic and financial crimes have summoned the former president many times, but he refused to collaborate. The police have also listened to people close to Ould Abdel Aziz and ministers that worked with him.
During the investigation, a decision of preventing the president from leaving the western Nouakchott was made.
