Mauritanian senate, judiciary at odds over MP's arrest

By Mohamed Bakay

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania

A dispute has erupted between the Mauritanian Senate and the country’s public prosecutor over the fate of Senator Mohamed Ould Ghada, who was jailed late last week for accidentally killing two people with his car.

On Tuesday, the public prosecutor's office issued a statement confirming that Ould Ghada’s arrest and subsequent incarceration were in line with Mauritanian law and the national constitution.

It cited Article 50 of the constitution, which allows the arrest and prosecution of members of parliament if they are caught in the act of committing a crime.

"The office of the public prosecutor is keen to apply the law to all violators without discrimination," the statement read.

The prosecutor’s office made the assertion one day after the senate -- the second chamber of Mauritania’s bicameral parliament -- convened a special session to protest the MP’s arrest.

Members of the senate argue that Article 50 of the national charter also calls for "suspending the detention of any MP upon the request of the chamber to which he or she belongs”.

At Monday’s session, the senate voted to apply the relevant clause of Article 50, while assembly members refused to receive Parliamentary Affairs Minister Hawa Tandia, who had been scheduled to present draft legislation related to the issue.

Last Friday, Ould Ghada accidentally struck two people with his car -- killing both of them instantly -- near Mauritania’s southern city of Rosso.