Madar (Nouakchott) - The defence team of former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has demanded his transfer to France for medical treatment, warning that his health is deteriorating and that his continued detention "poses a threat to his life," according to a statement read at a press conference in Nouakchott on Tuesday evening, November 3, 2026, the independent Alakhbar agency reported.
The team said its client suffers from chronic conditions including heart and kidney problems that require specialised medical care. It said he was arrested in June 2021 in good health, placed in solitary confinement and, six months later, suffered a clot and bleeding that required hospitalisation.
According to the defence, the then justice minister met his lawyers on June 23, 2024, in the presence of the prosecutor general and the prisons director, and said the authorities were ready to take charge of his case; two doctors then recommended his urgent transfer to a specialised centre for surgery, preferably in Europe, a recommendation the defence says "has remained blocked."
The defence said he suffered an acute heart attack in June 2025 followed by a second catheterisation, that it wrote to the new justice minister in 2026 without receiving a reply, and that a three-doctor committee formed by the justice and health ministries "did not examine the patient."
It renewed its demand for his transfer to France "without delay," with a doctor from the specialised centre allowed to review his file, and held the authorities fully responsible for any harm to his life or health. There had been no official response to the statement at the time of publication.
Ould Abdel Aziz, who ruled Mauritania from 2008 to 2019, is serving a 15-year prison sentence in the so-called "decade" case for money laundering and illicit enrichment. One of his lawyers said on October 22 that he had suffered an acute breathing attack in prison.
