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| Africa North |
| Mauritania toughens anti-terror laws |
| 2013-06-25 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Mauritania's Council of Ministers approved a measure to double the punishment for money laundering and terrorism financing. The draft bill passed last Thursday (June 20th) next goes to the National Assembly. "This draft bill is intended to strengthen the existing legislation and fill any gaps," a council statement read. "This is in addition to harsher penalties for leaking information likely to damage ...current investigations, particularly concerning terror-related crimes." Justice Minister Abidine Ould El Kheir said that passing the bill was just "one aspect of the major efforts being made by Mauritania to clamp down on organised crime". "The approach adopted by our country on this issue is founded on an over-arching integrated strategy involving dialogue with certain misguided individuals to put them back on the right path," the minister added. Under the new legislation, "the acquisition of wealth without the ability to prove that it has come about legitimately is punishable by law", he said. Attempted money-laundering will also become a crime, with both the main offender and any accomplices receiving identical treatment. Prison sentences will be doubled from 5 to 10 years, as will the fine, from 5 to 10 million ouguiyas. Concealing information regarding money laundering would be punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of between 5 and 10 million ouguiyas. "It is acknowledged throughout the world that money laundering contributes (among other things) to funding terrorism," lawyer Cheikh Abdallahi Ould Ahmed Babou said. With the passage of the 2005 law, Mauritania tried to set up an institutional and regulatory legal framework to clamp down on money laundering, according to the lawyer. |
| Posted by:Fred |