By Ibrahima Sylla

NOUAKCHOTT, July 31 (Reuters) - A court in Mauritania sentenced three suspected Islamist militants to between three and five years in jail on Tuesday for forgery but cleared them of other charges including threatening national security.

The three were accused of participating in a 2005 attack on an army outpost in which 15 Mauritanian soldiers were killed. They faced charges of rebellion and belonging to a terrorist group and were among 14 suspected militants on trial.

Seven were acquitted of lesser charges including the use of forged documents and belonging to an illegal organisation, while two others were given suspended sentences for forgery.

"The verdict is a little harsh for those who have been convicted, especially given that the main points of accusation were rejected. The court only upheld the charges of forgery," said Ahmed Ould Ely, one of a team of defence lawyers.

Another defence lawyer, Bilal Ould Dick, said his team would appeal against the verdict.

The trial was the second major hearing involving Islamists in recent months in the former French colony, an Islamic Republic straddling black and Arab Africa on the western edge of the Sahara desert.

A Nouakchott court acquitted 20 Islamists in June of trying to set up an al Qaeda-linked group in the mostly desert nation, although one man was found guilty of possessing illegal weapons and false documents and was jailed for two years.

A military junta ousted Mauritania's long-term dictator Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, a close ally of the United States in its war on terrorism, in 2005.

Taya was accused of using the threat of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on his own moderate Islamist opposition.

The junta handed over power in May to a civilian government headed by President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi after elections in March.

"This is a good new start for the judiciary. You can feel there is a separation of powers," defence lawyer Zaim Ould Hemed Vall said after the verdict.

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