Weld Mansour is released; 27 army officers detained in Mauritania
Mauritania, Politics, 8/13/2004

News reports in Nouakchott said that the authorities in Mauritanian released yesterday evening the Islamic opposition member Muhammad Jamil Weld Mansour. The police in Mauritania detained Weld Mansour on Wednesady without any accusation addressed to him.

This, however, came one day after the announcement made by the authorities in Mauritania that it had stopped a coupe attempt against the regime. Mauritania's minister of defense Baan Weld Sidi accused the opposition national alliance, which is outside the country, of being behind the coupe attempt.

Weld Mansour was detained for several times, the last of which was five months ago when he voluntarily returned back from his political asylum in Belgium to practice his opposition activity from inside the country.

Meantime; the " Mauritania Human rights Monitor" issued a statement in which it links between the current acts of arrest in the lines of the army and what it considered tribal mass cleansing in the Mauritanian army.

The statement gave mention to the names of 27 army officers detained over the announcement made by the authorities on the failure of a coupe attempt targeting the President of Mauritanian Mu'aweya Weld Sidi Ahmad al-Taye on Monday.

The statement noted that most of the detainees are of kinship ties to relatives of leaders of the failed coupe on June 8 and 9, 2003.

Previous Stories:
  Nouakchott links the coupe attempt to al-Zarqawi   (8/12/2004)
  Mauritania government issues the first statement over the coupe attempt; News on releasing senior detainees, detaining others   (8/11/2004)
  20 officers held in Mauritanian, doubts in the story of the coupe   (8/10/2004)

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