The office of the National Assembly lifted for the second time on Tuesday evening, February 20, the immunity of an elected official: that of opposition deputy Sawab and former presidential candidate Biram Dah Abeid. This decision follows a complaint filed by the president of the opposition Union of Forces for Progress (UFP) party against the MP for “defamation and slander”. A decision which highlights the divisions between certain opposition parties a few months before the presidential election of June 2024.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Nouakchott, Léa Breuil
This lifting of the immunity of MP Biram Dah Abeid comes a week after the president of the UFP, Mohamed Ould Maouloud filed a complaint against him for defamation.
This complaint follows the broadcast of a video recording in which Biram Dah Abeid claims that several ex-candidates such as the president of the UFP would have received a large sum of money from businessman Mohamed Ould Bouamatou during of the 2019 presidential campaign.
Slanderous remarks and an unfounded amount according to Maître Lo Gourmo Abdoul, Mohamed Maouloud’s lawyer: “ Biram himself was the subject of denunciations. He wanted to show that he is not the only one to have received money by saying that even Mohamed Maouloud received 0.5 billion ouguiya. We demand that he reverse these slanderous statements and we will stop the process immediately. We are pursuing a policy of appeasement. »
Some sources from the Sawab party, for their part, denounce a plot by those in power to exclude the MP from the 2024 presidential election.
If according to Master Cheikh Hindi, Biram Dah Abeid’s lawyer, it is still too early in the procedure to comment, for him this complaint is excessive. “ He only cited Maouloud as an example, that’s all. So it’s enough just to say it’s not true, not to file a complaint. Especially between two friends from the opposition. I have taken note of what happened and I am now waiting for the preliminary investigation. But it’s true that it’s fast… »
According to lawyers, this divide between the opposition parties is not new. At the end of September, the two opposition parties, the RFD and the UFP, signed a charter of national understanding with the majority party to open dialogue after highly criticized legislative elections. A decision contested among others by the Sawab party.