Former mayor arrested, held incommunicado

Mauritanian police arrested opposition activist Mohamed Jemil Ould Mansour on his return from exile in Belgium last week and are still holding him incommunicado without charge, one of his defence lawyers said on Monday. Lawyer Diabira Maroufa, one of the man's lawyers, told IRIN on Monday that neither he nor any of his colleagues had been able to see Mansour, who is the former mayor of Nouakchott's middle-income suburb of Arafat, a stronghold of Islamic radicals. Ould Mansour was arrested early last year, along with about 40 other Islamic radicals, shortly before a bloody coup attempt on 8 June that narrowly failed to oust President Maaoouiya Ould Taya. The former army colonel has ruled this poor desert country of 2.5 million with an iron hand for 20 years. Ould Mansour, who belongs to the Rally of Democratic Forces opposition party led by former central bank governor Ahmed Ould Daddah, escaped from jail during the coup attempt and fled across the border to Senegal. He eventually sought political asylum in Belgium, but was arrested on the tarmac at Nouakchott airport when he voluntarily returned from Brussels last Thursday. Why Mansour decided to return home, two months after a presidential election which was denounced as rigged by the entire opposition, is still unclear. Ould Mansour, who is in his 40's and is widely regarded as a moderate in the Islamic camp, publicly supported the candidature of former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla during the presidential election campaign Ould Haidalla was runner-up to Ould Taya, according to the official results. But he and seven of his supporters were subsequently arrested and sentenced to suspended prison sentences for plotting to overthrow the government.