Mauritania: Council Rejects Anti-terrorism Law

Following an appeal by 32 opposition members of parliament, a constitutional court declared that ten articles of Mauritania’s new terrorism law — instituted to combat Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — are illegal under Mauritanian law. The unconstitutional provisions allow for, among other things, “preventive detention of terrorist suspects for 15 days and recording of telephone conversations and their e-mails and those of persons connected with them.” Although Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf defended the government’s good intentions when formulating the terrorism act, he deferred to the court and said that “we respect and abide by the decision.”