Mauritania releases ‘blasphemy’ blogger

NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritania has released a blogger who drew international attention after being accused of blasphemy, his lawyer and the campaign group RSF said yesterday. Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir, 36, had been initially sentenced to death but was then given a jail term on appeal. He

remained in detention despite having already served the sentence - a situation that sparked a chorus of protest from rights groups. “(He) was released yesterday from the place where he was under house arrest... (but) is not completely free in his movements,” his attorney Fatimata Mbaye said.

Mkheitir “is no longer in Nouakchott,” the Mauritanian capital, Mbaye said, without giving further details. His release came in the final days of the presidency of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who had previously argued that to free Mkheitir would endanger the blogger as well as the public. Mkheitir

was sentenced to death for blasphemy in December 2014 after he wrote a blog that challenged decisions taken by the Prophet Mohammed and his companions during holy wars in the seventh century.

He repented after being given that sentence, prompting an appeal court on November 2017 to downgrade the punishment to a two-year jail term - a decision that sparked protests in the conservative Saharan nation. His lawyers said he should have been released immediately, having already spent four years behind bars, but remained confined. —AFP