Toilet break escape: Manhunt for Al-Qaeda
suspect
April 4, 2008, Straits Times
NOUAKCHOTT (MAURITANIA) - A MANHUNT is on for an Al-Qaeda
suspect accused of murder who bolted after telling his guards he
needed a toilet break.
Sidi Ould Sidna had just finished a round of questioning at a
Mauritanian courthouse on Wednesday when he asked to use the
toilet.
A witness said that the guards allowed him to go into the stall
by himself and did not guard the doorway.
When he emerged, Sidna ran for the courthouse's exit, losing
himself in the crowd outside. He was wearing civilian clothes,
allowing him to blend in quickly.
Deputy prosecutor Moustapha Ould Said confirmed that Sidna had
escaped, saying 'the fugitive was able to divert the attention of
the policeman who was guarding him'.
The prosecutor declined to explain how this happened, but a
witness, Mr Abdallahi Fall, said that he saw the 26-year-old ask
for permission to go to the toilet.
Then he saw the policeman who was guarding the doorway leave to
approach a group of his friends. 'It was when Ould Sidna came out
of the bathroom and realised the policeman was not in front of the
door that he decided to flee,' said Mr Fall, who was at the
courthouse to attend to a legal matter.
Once on the street, the suspect was able to quickly lose himself
in the crowd gathered nearby to await the arrival of the Emir of
Qatar. Hours after the escape, prosecutors announced that the
policeman who was guarding the fugitive had been arrested, as had
another employee of the courthouse and two of the fugitive's
sisters.
The sisters had attended the interrogation session and are
believed to have helped their brother escape, said the deputy
prosecutor.
The country's top prosecutor announced a big reward for anyone
with information leading to Sidna's capture.
Sidna was one of two men arrested in January in the West African
country of Guinea-Bissau in connection with the brutal slaying of
four French tourists on Dec 24. The duo were extradited to
Mauritania to face charges of murder and terrorism.
The tourists were gunned down along a Mauritanian highway where
they had stopped to have a picnic.
Mauritanian officials launched a manhunt, saying the men behind
the attack are linked to an Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror cell
headquartered in neighbouring Algeria.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This seems to be part of their strategy.. escaping from toilets.
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