Mauritanian charges three with murder of French tourists
Three suspected killers of four French adventure tourists in Mauritania have been charged with acts of terrorism, a judiciary source said Monday.
Two of them, Mohammed Chabarnoux and Sidi Ould Sidina, were arrested on January 11 in Guinea Bissau following a manhunt across west Africa and were subsequently extradited to Mauritania.
The third, Maarouve Mohamed Habib, is still on the run with an Interpol arrest warrant against him.
The three were charged late Sunday with belonging to a criminal association with the aim of killing and using Mauritania’s national territory for acts of terrorism against citizens of a foreign country.
The four French tourists were shot dead near Aleg in southern Mauritania and a fifth was badly wounded on December 24.
The roadside killings and an attack on a military base in north Mauritania two days later, which left three soldiers dead, led to the cancellation of the Dakar 2008 motor rally across the Sahara.
The attack on the base was claimed by a group linked to the Al-Qaeda network.