Alleged coup plotter to face civil court

A Mauritanian army officer who was extradited from Senegal to face charges of involvement in last month's failed coup against President Maaouiya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, will be tried by a civil not a military court, the judge in charge of his case said on Monday. Lieutenant M'hamed Ould Didi, who fled to Senegal shortly after the collapse of the June 8 military rebellion, was sent back to the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott last Friday. Judge Mohamed Ould Babana, a member of The Gambia-based African Commission for Human Rights, said Didi and all others who might subsequently be charged in connection with the coup attempt would be tried under civilian law. Human rights activists had expressed fears that the coup plotters would face a military tribunal that would be more be likely to impose death sentences or that - as in previous instances - they might face summary execution. Military sources have said that about 150 serving and retired soldiers had been arrested for questioning in connection with the coup attempt, which led to two days of fierce fighting in the capital. At least 29 people were killed during the uprising, during which rebel tanks shelled the presidential palace. Judge Babana said Didi had been extradited under terms of the 1962 Antananarivo Convention, which allows African countries to return suspected criminals back to the country of origin. "The trial will be fair and in conformity to Mauritanian law", he said, adding that everything had been done in conformity with judicial procedures and international conventions. The coup's three main ringleaders are still on the run, and the government has been lobbying neighbouring countries to return them should they seek refuge abroad. Alioune Tine, Secretary General of the Dakar-based human rights group RADDHO, which had opposed Didi's extradition, said he still considered that the man's return to Mauritania was tantamount to a deah sentence. He noted that Ould Taya had dealt ruthlessly with the leaders of previous coup attempts. Brahima Ould Ebetty, a Mauritanian lawyer and human rights activist agreed. "Regardless if it is a civil and military trial, the case won't be fair because the justice system is not independent", he told IRIN by telephone from Nouakchott. Ebetty condemned Mauritanian pro-government newspapers for calling for the execution of the coup leaders. President Ould Taya, who has ruled this desert nation of 2.5 million people with an iron hand for the past 19 years, came to power himself in a military coup in 1984.