NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, May 25 (UPI) -- Lawyers in Mauritania said they would call for the death penalty for three al-Qaida affiliates for the slaying of four French tourists in 2007.
A Mauritanian court opened a trial May 16 for 21 suspects linked to an al-Qaida group accused of killing French tourists in 2007.
Prosecutors have called for the death penalty for three main defendants who are accused of opening fire on five French nationals, killing four of them.
The three suspects -- Sidi Ould Sidna, Maarouf Ould Haiba and Mohamed Ould Chabarnou -- told the court they were "soldiers of al-Qaida" and admitted to training with the terrorist group. They denied pulling the trigger on the French nationals, the daily newspaper Ennahar in Algiers reports.
Governments in North Africa are mounting a charge against a spate of kidnappings by militants linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
AQIM said recently it was holding Michel Germaneau, a French national kidnapped in April in the northern Niger desert near the border of Mali and Algeria.
The group formed as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, dedicated to overthrowing the Algerian government. It joined forces with al-Qaida in 2004 and has spread its reach across North and West Africa.
