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| Africa North |
| Mauritania jails Qaeda mercenary kidnapper |
| 2010-07-22 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A Mauritanian court on Wednesday sentenced a Malian national to 12 years in prison for his role in kidnapping three Spanish aid workers and handing them over to al-Qaeda. Omar Sid'Ahmed Ould Hamma, who was arrested in February by Mauritanian security forces, was the ringleader of a gang of kidnappers who abducted the Spaniards the previous November. The court in Nouakchott also sentenced an elderly Mauritanian shepherd to a one-year suspended sentence and acquitted four others. Earlier prosecutors said they had dropped calls for the court to impose life sentences on the alleged kidnappers. The prosecution said it would instead seek a jail sentence of between five and 20 years. It said this was because Hamma was "no longer physically detaining the hostages." Two of the Spaniards kidnapped in November last year, Albert Vilalta, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50, are still being held by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which prosecutors said paid Hamma and others to hand them over. A female colleague, Alicia Gamez, 39, was released in March after three months in captivity. Hamma, who with the other accused denies the charges, was arrested in February in an operation by Mauritanian security forces on the border with Mali. The kidnappers have demanded payment of several million dollars in ransom and the release of Islamist prisoners held in Mauritania, which along with neighboring desert states Mali and Niger has witnessed a rise in terrorism-related kidnappings of westerners. The 12-year sentence handed down to Hamma will include hard labour and the confiscation of all his assets. A gun, a knife, some brass knuckles, and a few grenades. Wotta haul. |
| Posted by:Fred |