After The 2005 Coup
Following a military coup against Taya in August 2005, an amnesty in early September freed Haidallah from his sentence, along with more than a hundred others sentenced for political offenses. On December 27, 2006, Haidalla announced that he would be a candidate in the presidential election scheduled for March 11, 2007. He campaigned on a nationalist-Islamist platform, citing the struggle against poverty and slavery as priorities. On February 3, he gained the support of another registered presidential candidate, former opposition politician and prisoner under Ould Taya, Chbih Ould Cheikh Melainine, who dropped out of the race.
However, no longer having the political base that came with being the main candidate of the opposition under Ould Taya, Haidallah was even less successful in the 2007 election, coming in tenth place and receiving 1.73% of the vote.
After the election, which was won by Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, Haidalla announced his support for Abdallahi in October 2007. However, following the coup that ousted Abdallahi in August 2008, Haidalla expressed his support for the coup in a statement on August 29, 2008, saying that it was necessary under the circumstances and urging all Mauritanians to support it. He also criticized the negative reactions of Western governments to the coup, alleging that they were interfering in Mauritanian affairs.
In July 2007, Sidi Mohamed Uld Haidalla, (Mohamed Khouna's son) was detained in Morocco for drug trafficking charges. In 2008 he was judged and condemned to 7 years in prison.
On June 18, 2010, Haidallah wrote an open letter to the heads of state who have good relations with the king of Morocco, requesting for help to bring his son back to Mauritania or to liberate him. He denounces the conditions of imprisonment of his son, who is handicapped.
On June 24, 2010, El Ghassem Uld Bellali, a Mauritanian deputy, declared that the imprisonment of Sidi Mohamed Uld Haidalla is a Moroccan "political vengeance" against Haidalla's father, for the recognition he gaved to the SADR and to the right of self-determination of the Sahrawi people, when he was president of Mauritania.
Read more about this topic: Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla