Summary Court awards 10 years to cop who acted as a go-between for al-Qaeda and its jailed operatives.
NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - A court in the capital Nouakchott ruled the policeman had served as a "liaison between AQIM terrorists and prisoners from the organisation in Mauritania", the source said on condition of anonymity.
"He transmitted photos and security information between dangerous prisoners and their mentors," the source said, without elaborating.
According to observers, this is the first time a member of the Mauritanian security services has been tried and sentenced for links with AQIM.
Online news agency Alakhbar said the officer had provided AQIM with pictures and other information from inmates on the conditions of their detention in the northern Mauritanian Salah-Eddine airbase.
The monitoring of prisoners convicted of terrorism and considered dangerous due to their suspected membership of AQIM is currently the responsibility of the national Mauritanian police force, the agency said.
It was not immediately clear when the offences were committed or when the unnamed police officer was arrested.
Thirteen members of AQIM, including eight on death row, were moved from the Mauritania capital s central jail to a secret location in 2011, security sources and relatives of the prisoners told AFP at the time.
Among the eight sentenced to death, three had been found guilty of involvement in the murders of four French tourists in Aleg in south Mauritania in December 2007.
