Court reduces blogger’s sentence
Publish date: 13 November 2017
Issue Number: 751
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Mauritania
An appeals court in Mauritania has reduced a blogger’s death sentence to a two-year jail term. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Mohamed M'khaitir was convicted of blasphemy in 2014. BBC News reports that his article was considered insulting to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, although he said it was meant to criticise the use of religion to justify discrimination. His blog was accused of questioning choices made by the Prophet Muhammad during holy wars in the 7th Century. He was released because he spent more than two years in jail. His lawyer said the news was ‘a great victory’.
