Amnesty International has called on Mauritania to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Mohamed Mkhaïtir, who faces the death penalty for criticizing the use of Islam to justify discriminatory practices against minority ethnic groups. Mkhaïtir’s appeal trial is scheduled to be heard again in Nouadhibou, in the country’s northwest.
The case, stemming from a 2013 Facebook post titled “Religion, Religiosity and Blacksmiths”, condemned the use of religion to marginalize the blacksmith caste, to which Mkhaïtir belongs. Following the publication, he received threats, and thousands protested in multiple cities, demanding the death penalty. Arrested on 5 January 2014, Mkhaïtir was charged with apostasy and initially held in solitary confinement under harsh conditions.
Despite publicly expressing remorse during his trial, he was sentenced to death on 25 December 2014. The Nouadhibou Court of Appeal upheld the sentence in April 2016, before the Supreme Court annulled the decision and returned the case to the Appeal Court.
Kiné-Fatim Diop, Amnesty International’s West Africa Campaigner, condemned the sentence as “absurd” and a major setback for freedom of expression in a country that has not executed anyone for apostasy in over 50 years. Mkhaïtir, a prisoner of conscience, has endured years of detention solely for exercising his right to free expression and opposing discrimination.
Amnesty stresses that Mauritania’s authorities must halt these farcical proceedings, release Mkhaïtir immediately, and respect the country’s obligations under international human rights law, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which it is a signatory.
