NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — Prosecutors charged three Mauritanian men Sunday with belonging to an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization and gunning down four French tourists on a roadside in this Islamic nation in December.
Two of the men were arrested recently at a hotel in Guinea-Bissau and extradited to Mauritania. A third is still on the run, said top public prosecutor Ahmed Ould Abdalla.
The two arrested men were identified as Sidi Ould Sidna, alias Abou Jendel, and Mohamed Ould Sidi Chabarnou. Authorities are searching for Maarouve Ould Habib, Abdalla said.
Each faces the death penalty if found guilty.
Police in Guinea-Bissau had said Sidna and Chabarnou, both in their 20s, had acknowledged participating in the killings.
All three are thought to belong to al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, an Algerian- based network affiliated with Osama bin Laden’s global terrorist organization, Abdalla said.
