Mauritania junta frees president from house arrest

NOUAKCHOTT, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Mauritania's military junta on Sunday freed the country's ousted president Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi from house arrest, a politician supporting Abdallahi said.

Abdallahi, toppled in an Aug. 6 coup, was taken by security officers from his home town of Lemden, where he had been under house arrest since mid-November, to his home in the capital Nouakchott and was told he was being released, Moulay Eli Ould Ahmed told Reuters. (Reporting by Hachem Sidi Salem; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)