Military

DATE=11/23/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=MAURITANIA / TRIAL (L-O)

NUMBER=2-320622

BYLINE=NICO COLOMBANT

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Lawyers Boycott Mauritania Coup Trial

INTRO: Judges in the mostly desert northwestern African state of Mauritania are pursuing the trial of more than 180 suspected coup plotters, despite a walkout by all defense lawyers. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from our West Africa

bureau in Abidjan.

TEXT: The defense lawyers started their boycott Monday after one of them, Sidi Mohamed Ould Maham, was jailed for what the presiding judge called lack of discipline.

Defense lawyers say they will boycott all judicial proceedings in Mauritania until Mr. Maham is freed. He had complained about the conduct of the trial and said the judge should, in his words, stop his comic words.

A prominent member of the defense team, Brahim Ould Ebetti, says the whole trial is a sham.

/// EBETTI ACT IN FRENCH FADED UNDER ///

Defense lawyers have demanded that two military officials on the jury of the civilian court be disqualified from sitting, but the request has been rejected. Lawyers also complain that the trial is taking place at a heavily protected remote military barracks in the desert, saying this is not suitable.

The trial resumed as a handful of suspects faced initial questioning. They all refused to speak though due to the absence of their lawyers.

Those on trial include two opposition leaders and former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah. They have said they will plead innocent. Mr. Haidallah was military head of state until his overthrow by the current president, Maaouiya Ould Taya, in 1984.

Nine suspects still on the run are being tried in absentia.

All 181 suspects on trial have been accused of taking part in successive coup plots against President Taya since June 2003. Only the first plot led to violence.

The head of the Senegalese-based human rights group Raddho, Alioune Tine, says he has been denied access to the trial, which he finds symptomatic of what he calls Mauritania's deteriorating governance.

/// TINE ACT ///

"In one year, we have three coups at Mauritania. It is too much, it is a sign of instability in this country and it is a sign that people have no confidence about the system and in people I am meaning the opposition parties."

/// END ACT ///

An analyst with London-based World Markets Research Center, Olly Owen, says Mauritania is about to begin off-shore oil production.

/// OWEN ACT ///

"Obviously now is a time of heightened tension. If you were going to launch an attempt at violent regime change, now is when you would do it because oil revenues have not yet started to grow, but they are very much on the horizon so within a year's time the kind of balance of power in that country will have changed even more in favor of the incumbent."

/// END ACT ///

President Taya has been seeking closer ties with western countries, while cracking down on Islamic activists and the opposition. International election monitors characterized his re-election last year as marred with fraud and intimidation. (SIGNED)

NEB/NC/RAE/MEM