Hey, Dan! Something happened in Mauretania! (Can't be... Nothing ever happens in Mauretania...)
NOUAKCHOTT: Thirty-six people were charged Tuesday with ‘plotting against the constitutional order’ and other offences, their lawyers said, in a government crackdown against Islamic militants. The suspects, arrested in early May, were also charged with incitement to damage security at home and abroad and of belonging to illegal organisations, said their lawyer Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Lemmatt. Last month, Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheikh El-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna warned of the dangers posed by Islamic extremists and against youngsters being drawn to their cause. A number of Islamist activists, including some imams, religious leaders, were arrested and accused of ‘recruitment’ and ‘subversive scheming’. The prime minister said extremists hoped to use Mauritania as a new base, after being harassed out of other countries. ‘They have profited from the spirit of openness and tolerance which our people display’. The latest charges carry sentences of up to 20 years hard labour. Among those charged were Jemil Ould Mensour, the mayor of Arafat - a district of Nouakchott - and Ould Mohamed Moussa, a former ambassador to Syria, police sources said. |