Mauritania's bar association faces strong crisis
The pace of crisis overwhelming the bar association in Mauritania since 1997 has escalated in the past days and matters reached the extent of threatening the authorities there because of imprisonment of the chairman of the bar association in Mauritania, Mahfouz Weld Betah, who is recognized by the Arab bar association and the conference of the Franchophony conference.
The crisis has been ongoing at Mauritania's bar association since 1997, when the bar association started a protest plan with demands proposed to the authorities to initiate a dialogue aiming at studying problems impeding progress of judiciary and lawyers, including elimination of " corruption " in the " judge palace " and the commitment of courts to execute its decisions.
After a series of meetings and strikes, the minister of justice then vowed to meet most of the demands in the future. The lawyers pended their strike until the time of the elections in 2002 to renew the chairman of the commission's members. Mahfouz Weld Btah proposed as a candidate for the fourth time, while Muhammad Maa al-Einin Weld Khaleifa was a rival candidate, as well as Muhammad Weld al-Naneh as a third candidate.
In these elections, Weld al-Naneh got one vote and Muhammad Maa al-Einin got 99 votes while Weld Btah got 103, but the elections committee called for a second round of elections.
Weld Btah supporters boycotted the second round elections, and according to that Maa al-Einin was declared as a chairman of the bar association after he had got 122 votes, but the Arab bar association and the Franchophony lawyers conference refused to recognize the legitimacy of the elections and stressed that the results of the elections are null and void.
Since then, the Mauritanian bar association has two chairmen instead of one, each of them alleges his right of the title.
Worthy mentioning that Weld Btah is an activist in defending human rights and anti normalization with Israel and is launching a fight against what is called the will at certain sides in the authority to tame the Bar association and control all civil society establishments.