Former Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz challenged a trial court’s five year prison sentence against him for corruption, arguing it wasn’t appropriate for an ex-leader of the large West Saharan nation to end up behind bars, even if he did embezzle $70 million from public coffers and God knows what the hell else after two coups to remain in power. The AP reports the appellate court agreed and instead sentenced him to 15 years in the joint, plus a $3 million fine.
So yeah, that kind of backfired. You’d think a guy worth $70+ million would be able to afford better representation, ones who would at least tell him that he was rolling the dice and that the country’s appellate system has the discretion to un-reduce sentences too, so maybe just suck it up and do the five years before dying rich in exile somewhere with nicer beaches. Wonder what it was like in the courtroom, and if the judge said the sentence was overturned and then a “however…” lol.