Senegalese judge orders extradition of suspected coup plotter

Senegal's court of appeal has ordered the extradition to Mauritania of army Lieutenant Didi Ould M'Hamed, who has been accused by the government in Nouakchott of involvement in last month's coup attempt. The ruling, delivered on Thursday, was roundly condemned by a Senegalese human rights organsiation, which said the extradition order was tantamount to a "death sentence". M'Hamed fled after the 8 June coup attempt was crushed in two days of heavy fighting. He was arrested 10 days later in the Senegalese border town of Bakel and was subsequently transferred to the capital Dakar. M'Hamed's arrest was widely reported in the Senegalese press at the time and human rights groups sought access to him, but the authorities denied that the Mauritanian officer was being held. Other suspected coup plotters have been arrested within Mauritania. However their ringleader, Lieutenant Colonel Saleh Ould Hannena, is still on the run. The Dakar-based human rights group, RADDHO, protested that M'Hamed would face torture and ultimately execution if he were returned to Mauritania. "It is an extremely serious decision because it carries risks of torture that could lead to death. Extraditing him means sending him to his death", RADDHO's secretary-general, Alioune Tine, told IRIN. He said the officer's forced return would make Senegal an accomplice to a "death sentence" and would violate the international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment which the government has ratified. This is the first attempt to extradite any of the Mauritanian coup plotters from another country. Mauritanian President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya has arrested many army officers and senior government officials suspected of conniving with the rebels, including several top figures in the country's ruling party. Two years ago Senegalese judges refused a request to put Chad's former president, Hissene Habre, on trial for torture and extra-judicial killings while he was head of state from 1982 to 1990. The appeal court rejected a demand by relatives of Habre's alleged victims that Habre be tried in Senegal, where he was living in exile. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade subsequently said he was willing to hand over Habre to stand trial in a third country, so long as he received guarantees of a fair trial. The former Chadian leader, who has been accused of executing about 40,000 people, is still living in Dakar.