PORT LOUIS, Mauritius: A court in Mauritius on Monday released on bail the island\u2019s former prime minister Pravind Jugnauth in a money-laundering probe after seizing suitcases of cash in raids on his alleged accomplices\u2019 homes.
\nPolice detained the 63-year-old along with his wife Kobita Jugnauth on Saturday and questioned them for several hours, police sources told AFP.
\nKobita Jugnauth was later released and Pravind Jugnauth was placed under formal arrest in the early hours of Sunday.
\nIn court in the capital Port Louis, the ex-premier denied the accusations.
\nThe judge released him pending a bail payment of 150,000 rupees ($16,000), in a written ruling seen by AFP.
\nPolice and court documents detailed searches at the homes of two other suspects who run a local leisure company.
\nThey said officers seized documents bearing the names of the Jugnauths, as well as luxury watches and suitcases of cash.<\/p>\n
Prime minister from 2017 to 2024, Pravind Jugnauth is a member of one of the dynasties that have dominated the leadership of Mauritius, a stable and relatively prosperous Indian Ocean island nation, since it became independent from Britain in 1968.
\nHe oversaw a historic deal with Britain for Mauritius to regain sovereignty over the Chagos Islands following a long-running dispute.
\nHe and his Militant Socialist Movement suffered a crushing defeat in tense elections in November.
\nHe ceded office to center-left rival Navin Ramgoolam, who became prime minister for the third time.
\nRamgoolam\u2019s government reopened the Chagos negotiations, reportedly seeking greater financial compensation and to renegotiate the length of the proposed lease for a joint UK-US military base.
\nUnder the Chagos deal, Britain will retain a lease for the base on the island of Diego Garcia.
\nBoth Mauritius and Britain have said US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration will have a say on the final terms of the agreement.
\nThe base is currently leased by Britain to the United States and has become one of its key military facilities in the Asia-Pacific.
\nDuring the election campaign, both camps promised to improve the lives of ordinary Mauritians who face cost-of-living difficulties despite strong economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius: A court in Mauritius on Monday released on bail the island\u2019s former prime minister Pravind Jugnauth in a money-laundering probe after seizing suitcases of cash in raids on his alleged accomplices\u2019 homes. Police detained the 63-year-old along with his wife Kobita Jugnauth on Saturday and questioned them for several hours, police sources …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77184,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77168\/revisions\/77184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}