Mauritania’s former President (1980-1984), retired Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah, Thursday denounced “the continuous attacks on members of his family since 1990.” Haidallah cited as evidence, a report by the Moroccan News Agency (MAP) 17 October, that 18 kilos of cocaïne was seized from his son, Sidi Mohamed Ould Haidallah, who has been sentenced for drug trafficking by a Moroccan court. In a statement issued in Nouakchott, the former Mauritanian leader, who is also a defeated candidate in the 2003 and 2007 presidential polls, said he was drawing the attention of the international opinion on this inaccurate information and claimed he had not reported any mention related to a seizure of any quantity of drug after going through the files set both by the Mauritanian and the Moroccan justice in connection with the case against his son. Actually, “this information by the MAP is part of the continuous attack that started in the 1990s in Mauritania aimed at denting the image of the family I embody.” The former Mauritanian head of state seeks to have the Moroccan public understand that “the baseless news and the Agadir stiff verdict are unfriendly gestures that do not match with the friendliness and high regard he has always shown to the Moroccan people and particularly to its King.” Last week, a Moroccan court sentenced Sidi to seven years in jail for drug-trafficking. He was also accused of complicity in another drug-trafficking case that hit the headlines for several weeks in Mauritania between May and September 2007.
