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Mauritania's former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appeared in court on Wednesday at the opening of his appeal against a jail sentence for abuse of power and embezzlement.

Aziz, who ruled the 4.5 million-population country between north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa between 2008 and 2019, was found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail in December 2023. His lawyers appealed the sentence.

The former president, who has been in custody since he went on trial in January 2023, appeared healthy at the high-security hearing.

He is in the dock alongside a dozen senior officials and close friends -- including two former prime ministers -- on charges of "illicit enrichment", "abuse of office", "influence peddling" or "money laundering".

Supporters of the former head of state who tried to approach the courthouse were kept away by law enforcement.

At the time of his indictment in March 2021, investigators estimated that Aziz had accumulated assets and capital worth $70 million over his more than a decade as president.

The 66-year-old was excluded from June's presidential election, won by his successor and former right-hand man Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.

Mauritania was hit by several coups from 1978 to 2008, before the 2019 election marked the first transition between two elected presidents.