Magharebia
Maghreb News
2012-04-06 Algerian diplomats seized at the Algerian Consulate in the northern Mali city of Gao are being held by unknown parties, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said on Thursday (April 5th). “The Algerian government is fully mobilised to ensure their release,” APS quoted the minister as saying.
But according to a spokesperson for Touareg separatists Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA), al-Qaeda splinter groupJamat Tawhid Wal Jihad Fi Garbi Afriqqiya (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO) is behind the kidnapping of the diplomats.
Jihadists with explosive belts surrounded the Algerian consulate on Thursday and threatened to detonate them if MNLA security guards at the site refused to leave, Hama Ag Sid Ahmed told Tout sur l’Algerie. They then seized the consulate, hoisted the black Salafist flag and took the consul and six staff members to an unknown destination.
In related news, Morocco expressed its solidarity with the “Algerian people” after the kidnapping, MAP reported.
“Morocco denounces the attack against the Consulate of Algeria and the kidnapping of seven diplomats,” Moroccan Foreign Minister Saadeddine El Othmani said.
Iran extradites al-Qaeda leader to Mauritania
2012-04-06 Iran extradited a top aide of Osama bin Laden to his native Mauritania, ANI reported on Thursday (April 5th).
Al-Qaeda’s former number three man Mahfouz Ould al-Walid(aka “Abu Hafs the Mauritanian”) returned Tuesday to Nouakchott, where his wife and young children have been living since November.
The former head of al-Qaeda’s Sharia Committee fled Afghanistan for Iran after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Ould al-Walid voiced disapproval of the September 11th attacks before they occurred. His position caused a public dispute between him Osama bin Laden’s then-deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Abu Hafs’ return from Iran was facilitated by the Mauritanian government after the al-Qaeda official “publicly renounced his jihadist convictions”, AFP quoted a security source as saying.
Kadhafi son to stand trial in Tripoli
2012-04-06 Libya turned down the International Criminal Court (ICC) request to hand over Seif al-Islam al-Kadhafi to The Hague, stating that he would instead be tried in his home country,Tripoli Post reported on Thursday (April 5th).
“The Libyan Ministry of Justice will soon announce the completion of preparations for the trial of Seif Kadhafi,” interim government spokesperson Nasser al-Manaa said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“All relevant procedures for this trial have been completed, and he will be transferred to a special prison in Tripoli,” he said.
Interim Justice Minister Ali Ahmida Ashour earlier said that the “Libyan judiciary has jurisdiction over this case and has the right to try Saif Kadhafi in a public trial, as per international human rights standards, in the presence of representatives of the ICC and human rights organisations.”
Moamer Kadhafi’s son has been detained at a secret prison in Zintan since his capture last November. He and former Libyan spy chief Abdullah Senussi, who was arrested last month at the Nouakchott airport, are sought by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.
“We’re in political and legal contact with Mauritania,” al-Manaa said, “and we demand that Senussi be extradited for trial in Libya.”
2012-04-06 Libyan troops upheld a ceasefire between rival groups in the west of the country, ending three days of deadly clashes, AFP reported on Thursday (April 5th).
Fighting pitted groups from Zuwarah against gunmen from the neighbouring towns of Regdalin and Jamil. The clashes claimed 18 lives and left 250 people wounded.
The two camps fought on opposite sides during the 2011 conflict that toppled the regime of slain leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Tunisia sentences internet writers for blasphemy
2012-04-06 A Mahdia court sentenced two young writers to seven years in prison for publishing books critical of Islam, Tunisia Livereported on Thursday (April 5th).
Jaber Mejri and Ghazi Beji were charged in March for “attacks on public order and morality”. Beji’s e-book “Wahm al Islam” (the Illusion of Islam) and Mejri’s “Dark Land” both included caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
After Mejri uploaded his manuscript, which pictured a Tunisian Salafist as a monkey, Salafists threatened to throw acid on his face, Beji claimed. Beji said he “had to run away” when he learned of his friend’s arrest. He is now seeking political asylum in Greece.
The Tunisian office of Human Rights Watch denounced the Mahdia ruling as “an attack on freedom of expression and freedom of belief”.
Manouba man surrenders over Salafi flag incident
2012-04-06 The man accused of desecrating the national flag last month at Manouba University surrendered to Tunisian authorities on Thursday (April 5th), Tunisia Live reported. Yassine El Brigui, sought for raising the black flag of unapproved Salafist party “Hizb ut-Tahrir” at the university near Tunis, turned himself in “because he wants to make sure he is going to have a fair trial”, the Ministry of Human Rights spokesman Chakib Derwich said.
Manouba University student Khaoula Rashidi, who stood up to the Salafists to defend the national flag during the incident, was officially honoured on March 12th by President Moncef Marzouki.
Tunisian imams denounce politicisation of religion
2012-04-06 A group of imams at Zitouna Mosque on Thursday (April 5th) criticised the politicisation of religious discourse by Salafists.
“The Salafists want to make the mosque a political forum. This would be a way to mask political, economic and social failure” Fadhel Achour told Shems FM.
Zitouna University, originally housed in the Zitouna Mosque, reopened last Saturday after being closed for nearly 50 years by former Tunisian presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Algeria names new justice minister
2012-04-06 Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Thursday (April 5th) appointed Ahmed Noui as interim justice minister, El Watan reported. He replaces Tayeb Belaiz, who was named chairman of the Constitutional Council.
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