A Mauritanian court ended a mass coup trial on Thursday, condemning four top soldiers to life in prison and others to lesser sentences.
Three main opposition leaders were acquitted, including Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, a former military dictator who overthrew current President Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Ould Taya two decades ago and lost a presidential race against him in 2003.
In all, 181 people have been on trial since November in this Sahara desert nation for involvement in three separate coup attempts over the past several years.
Others on trial, mostly low-ranking officers, received sentences ranging from one to 15 years in prison.
Those condemned to life prison terms with hard labour included ex-military commander Saleh Ould Hanenna, Captain Abderahmane Ould Mini, Commander Mohamed Ould Cheikhna and Captain Mohammed Ould Salek.
After Judge Mohamed El Hadi Ould Mohamed read the verdicts, applause rang out in the courtroom. Others, family or friends of the accused, cried.
Prosecutors had requested death penalties for 17 of the accused.
The suspects went on trial en masse at a heavily guarded military base in the town of Wad Naga, 50km east of the capital, Nouakchott. The government had moved the trial from the capital, citing security fears.
The accused were suspected of mounting three coup attempts between June 2003 and September 2004. Only the 2003 coup made it past the planning stage, sparking brief but deadly street fighting in the capital.
Taya took power in a 1984 military coup and has since won two rounds of elections the opposition either boycotted or labelled rigged. He has allied his overwhelmingly Muslim Islamic republic with the United States and other Western allies, and cracked down on opposition figures and Islamist leaders.
The opposition accuses him of crushing dissent, torture and other rights abuses. Defence attorneys said several of the defendants had been tortured while held for the trial. The government denied the claims. — Sapa-AP