Malian charged in Al Qaeda kidnapping of Italians

Imidou has been charged for being involved in kidnapping of two Italian citizens near Mali border.

A Malian citizen has been charged for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of two Italians in Mauritania in December, a judicial source said Tuesday.

Abderrahmane Ould Imidou was charged by a court in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott with ''involvement in the kidnapping of two Italians and membership of an organisation aimed at committing terrorist acts.''

The source added that the defendant had been placed in detention in a Nouakchott prison.

Imidou was taken in for questioning several days after Sergio Cicala, 65, and his Burkina Faso-born wife Philomene Kabore, 39, were abducted in southeast Mauritania on December 18 by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM.

A police source said in December that Imidou was arrested ''while buying food provisions in a weekly market in Teidatt, not far from Kobenni,'' near the Mali border.

He was suspected of having "provided supplies to the AQIM base in northern Mali" and having "collaborated" in the kidnapping of the Italians, according to the same source.

According to the online news agency ANI, Imidou ''confessed'' in December ''to having collaborated with the hostage takers by informing them of the movement of the two Italians in return for an important sum of money.''

AQIM is currently holding six European hostages kidnapped over November and December, including three Spanish nationals, one Frenchman and the two Italians.

AQIM operates in several countries of the southwestern Sahara and emerged from an armed Muslim fundamentalist movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.