Mauritania strengthens penalties and prevention in anti-drug law
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Le Calame
Mauritania’s National Assembly has adopted a bill replacing the anti-drug framework in force since 1993 and expanding drug-related offences. The text provides for tougher penalties for aggravated offences, tools to trace and confiscate criminal assets, and prevention and treatment bodies, according to Justice Minister Mohamed Ould Soueidatt.
Mauritania’s National Assembly on Tuesday adopted draft law No. 26-040 on combating narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, Le Calame reported. The text replaces a 1993 law and strengthens penalties for offences committed by an organised group, with violence or weapons, or targeting minors and vulnerable people.
The law extends punishable acts to the production, manufacture, processing, possession, cultivation and trafficking of drugs, as well as activities involving equipment used for their illegal production. It also provides for financial investigations and the tracing and confiscation of proceeds of crime, according to Le Calame.
The framework establishes a National Commission for the Prevention of Narcotic Drugs and a National Centre for Addiction Treatment, as well as secondary centres. Users may be referred for treatment voluntarily or by court order. The text also establishes the criminal liability of legal entities and protection for whistleblowers.
The adoption comes after the president of Mauritania’s Parliament called on MPs on 1 October to ensure regular attendance in Parliament.
