Mauritania's police disperses Islamist demonstration

The Mauritanian police dispersed by force a demonstration for hundreds of Islamists who demonstrated on Monday in the capital Nouakchott demanding the release of the leader of the Islamic trend and his colleagues, using tear gas and sticks.

Some 2000 persons, most of them are students, gathered and walked from Nouakchott university to the gate of the civilian prison in the capital, demanding the release of Sheikh Muhammad al-Hassan Weld al-Dodou and 22 other detainees from the Islamic trend.

The demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans, stressing that the authorities fabricated all these accusations in order to tear down the opposition. They also carried banners criticizing "imprisonment and insulting scholars and advocates."

For its part, al-Dodou family issued a statement in which it called on human rights organizations and religious departments to support Sheikh Muhammad al-Hassan who is in critical health condition, noting that his illness prevented him from being brought before the court of Friday.

The judicial authorities officially accused the held Islamists of founding "an unlicensed organization" and preparing for "terrorist acts" that will expose the country to revenge acts.

The police accuses Sheikh Weld al-Dodou and his Islamists colleagues who were detained in April of being linked to al-Qaida organization and of leading a Jihad Salafeyah organization preparing for a revolution against the state. However, the Islamists deny that and accuse the authorities of fabricating a crisis to market itself within countries fighting terrorism.

News Agencies