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: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Mauritania authorities release arrested ex-president

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

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[JURIST] The deposed president of Mauritania Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was freed from house arrest Sunday, according to Mauritanian officials. Abdallahi was picked up by military forces early Sunday at his home in Lemden and was taken to the capital Nouakchott where he was released. Abdallahi had been under house arrest since a military coup in August. The release comes after the African Union, the European Union, and the US exerted pressure on the ruling military junta to restore the deposed president to his former position. In August, a military group staged a coup in Mauritania, detaining Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef. The coup's leader, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, previously backed a 2005 coup that removed then-President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Taya. Aziz had previously supported Abdallahi, but the two split after Abdallahi made political concessions to conservative Muslim groups. In September, the Mauritanian Parliament elected eight of its members to a High Court set to try Abdallahi on corruption charges. The coup overturned the first democratically elected government in the country in more than 20 years.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).