Across the Middle East and North Africa, many countries trace a similar arc. Ten years after the Arab Spring, revolutions calling for democratic reforms have resulted in further government repression in Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, and other countries. Meanwhile, civil wars rage in Syria and Yemen, and up until 2017, Iraq. The historic upheaval has had profound, wide ranging, and evolving consequences for press freedom, making journalism a deadlier and more dangerous profession for its local practitioners as well as foreign correspondents based in the region.
Over the past decade, authorities across the region have used novel and traditional means to suppress independent reporting and target individual journalists. Here are seven trends in press freedom that CPJ has documented in the 10 years since the Arab Spring:
As of December 2020, there are 89 journalists jailed in 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the highest number for the region since CPJ began counting in 1992. Most journalists are held on anti-state and false news charges; many are held without charge. In Egypt, most imprisoned journalists are charged but not sentenced, detained for months or years awaiting trial.
Authorities use imprisonment as a tactic to prevent or silence reporting on political issues and human rights violations, and to muzzle dissenting opinions. They also use imprisonment to quash coverage of unrest: in Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria journalists have been arrested while documenting uprisings.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are notable for dramatic spikes in imprisoned journalists. In 2012, the year after the initial Egyptian uprising, CPJ did not count a single journalist in prison there. Under the government of Abdel Fateh el-Sisi – who rose to power in a 2013 coup and was elected the year after – Egypt has put numerous journalists behind bars. In Saudi Arabia, there were no journalists imprisoned in 2011; the country arrested journalists in 2012 following pro-reform protests, and as of late 2020 there were at least 24 journalists held in Saudi prisons.
Authorities in several countries have used new vague censorship laws to restrict online media, as CPJ has documented. Website blocking is common across the region; in Jordan, authorities have blocked websites for allegedly lacking proper registration; in Egypt and Algeria websites have been blocked due to “false news” allegations; and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have blocked sites funded by Qatar. Authorities don’t always give explanation or warning before taking sites offline; in Egypt in 2017 news sites were blocked without prior notification; in Algeria in 2020 no governmental body claimed responsibility for blockages.
CPJ named Saudi Arabia and Iran as two of the world’s most heavily censored countries in its 2012, 2015, and 2019 reports on censorship. (The 2019 report is its most recent.) Under a 2011 regulation in Saudi Arabia, news sites and blogs must have a license from the Ministry of Culture and Information, as CPJ has documented. Iranian authorities maintain one of the toughest internet censorship regimes in the world with blocks on news and social networking sites, according to a 2018 report by CPJ.
Over the past 10 years, governments in the region increasingly charged journalists using “false news,” anti-state and terrorism laws rather than publication or media laws.
Egypt leads the world in jailing journalists on false news charges. A 2018 Egyptian law fines or suspends publications that publish “false news.” Recently, Egypt outlawed news outlets from publishing unofficial sources on the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other “sensitive” issues, as a way to quash independent reporting on the crisis.
In Morocco, journalists are often slapped with anti-terror or other criminal charges in retaliation for their work. Since 2016, Moroccan authorities have arrested local journalists on anti-state charges for reporting on anti-government protests in the northern Rif region, as CPJ documented. (The country deported foreign journalists working on the same story.) In 2019 and 2020, authorities arrested at least three journalists working for independent media on charges of undermining state security, rape, and illegal abortion, and arrested another under investigation for money laundering, without providing proper evidence, as CPJ documented.
In Algeria in late 2019, anti-government demonstrations ousted censorious President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. But his replacement, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has also gone after journalists; the country has two journalists imprisoned under anti-state laws, according to CPJ’s 2020 prison census. In 2020, the country also criminalized “false news.”
Since the Arab Spring, conflicts across the region have heightened the danger of reporting, resulting in a steep increase in the number of journalists killed. According to CPJ’s research, since 2011, 154 journalists have been killed in crossfire or while reporting on dangerous assignments in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. That figure accounts for more than half of the total number of journalists killed worldwide (258) in the same two scenarios during the same period.
Of the three countries, Syria is by far the deadliest, a relatively new title. Between 1992 and 2010, CPJ did not record a single journalist killed in the country; in the past decade Syria has counted 110 crossfire and dangerous assignment deaths. Most of those deaths are due to airstrikes and bombings by military forces, including the Syrian Army and its allies and Turkey.
In both Yemen and Iraq, clashes involving political groups, including Islamic State, militias, and Ansar Allah (the Houthis) accounted for the majority of journalist deaths due to crossfire or reporting on dangerous assignments.
The last decade has seen 50 murders of journalists in the region, including two high-profile state killings for which the perpetrators have not been brought to account. CPJ defines murders as those journalists targeted in direct reprisal for their work.
In the most notorious murder cases, state officials killed journalists in a manner seemingly designed to mock the idea of justice. In October 2018, Saudi intelligence and military officials killed and dismembered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. And in December 2020, Iran executed Roohollah Zam, editor of the Amad News Telegram channel, after intelligence officials seized the journalist in Iraq. Both journalists had criticized their governments from abroad and reported on domestic protest and reform movements.
Khashoggi and Zam’s brutal killings highlight a broader trend of impunity in journalist murders. The perpetrators ranged from weakened but still dangerous state actors like the Syrian government, to non-state groups such as the Islamic State, whose most high-profile murders – including those of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff– were recorded and presented to the world in a ghastly, cinematic fashion. Many perpetrators remain unknown. Syria and Iraq ranked second and third, respectively, on CPJ’s 2020 Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free.
Non-state actors such as militias have become prominent political players across the Middle East and North Africa, and their emergence has further threatened press freedom.
In 2014, taking advantage of the weakening of state authority and power vacuums stemming from armed conflict, militant groups Islamic State and the Houthis seized large swathes of territory in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen and became de facto authorities. They also imposed a tight grip on the media; for example, Islamic State took control of media outlets in Mosul, including the broadcasters Al-Mosuliya and Sama Mosul, and detained many journalists, while forcing many others underground, to impose a de facto media blackout.
Many journalists who dared to report critically of either group ended up in jail or killed. As CPJ has documented, the Houthis have detained dozens of Yemeni journalists; four were sentenced to death and remain in custody.
Islamic State and other political groups killed 65 journalists in Iraq and Syria and abducted many others, 19 of whom remain missing. The ousting of Islamic State from Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2018, however, hasn’t made local journalists feel safer, as CPJ has documented.
Conflict in Syria led to the emergence of a vast array of opposition armed groups that have little regard for press freedom. Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls large areas in northwestern Syria, has detained journalists, at least one of whom is still being held; the group is suspected of having killed at least two.
To defeat Islamic State, Iraq relied largely on Shia militias grouped under the Popular Mobilization Forces, which are now the main threat to Iraqi journalists. Libya has also seen journalist deaths at the hands of non-state actors; at least five journalists have been killed by militias and militant groups, including the Islamic State, since 2011.
After the 2011 protests rocked the region, authorities redoubled their efforts to monitor the activities of journalists and others whom they saw as potential threats to their power. Governments imported surveillance experts from the U.S. to develop their own monitoring infrastructure and collaborated with allies and erstwhile enemies, such as Israel, to buy and sell surveillance technologies, CPJ has documented.
The United Arab Emirates has become a regional epicenter of surveillance; government operatives allegedly deployed Israeli-based company NSO Group’s technology against journalists with Qatar links, and the country created a surveillance tool with the help of former U.S. government staff, as CPJ documented in December 2020 and January 2019, respectively. (In December, CPJ requested comment from NSO Group via email; the group declined to provide a comment that could be attributed to a named spokesperson.)
Other governments around the region are suspected of having deployed spyware targeting journalists: the Saudi government allegedly monitored several close contacts of Khashoggi before its agents murdered him.
“For the first time in almost five years, Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed does not fear for his life, inside or outside his prison cell,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “The pain and serious damage to his health that he has endured simply for expressing an opinion online should never be repeated.”
CPJ has advocated for Mohamed’s release since his arrest in 2014, including featuring him in the Free the Press campaign.
]]>On June 26, Mauritanian national police arrested Camara, the director of publishing for the weekly newspaper La Nouvelle Expression, at his home in Nouakchott, the capital, according to local news website Cridem.
Today, police also arrested al-Wadea, a presenter for the Mauritanian broadcaster Al-Mourabitoun TV, in Nouakchott, according to local news websites Future Afrique and al-Akhbar.
Mauritanian journalist Haiba Cheikh Sidati, who has worked with both Camara and al-Wadea and has been following their cases, told CPJ that no charges against either journalist have been made public, and that both have retained legal counsel. He said that Camara is being held at the jail of the National Security Directorate, which is overseen by the Ministry of the Interior, while al-Wadea has been detained in an unknown location.
The journalists are among more than 100 people who have been detained in the wake of Mauritania’s disputed presidential elections on June 22, according to reports. According to the independent internet monitoring group Netblocks, the country has also faced a widespread internet shutdown beginning shortly after the elections.
“Mauritanian authorities should immediately release Seydi Moussa Camara and Ahmedou Ould al-Wadea and allow journalists to comprehensively cover the country’s political transition by restoring internet access nationwide,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “The Mauritanian government must give priority to the public’s access to information at this crucial time.”
CPJ emailed the public relations office of the Mauritanian National Gendarmie for comment but did not immediately receive a response, and calls to the phone number listed on the website of the Mauritanian Regulatory Authority, which regulates internet access in the country, did not go through. CPJ was unable to locate contact information for the Ministry of the Interior.
Netblocks reported widespread internet outages in the country beginning on June 25, describing the situation as a “near-total internet blackout.” Today, sporadic reports on social media indicated that internet access has been restored to some locations, but CPJ could not confirm exactly which cities and regions have access. Netblocks posted an update on July 3 saying that some connectivity had been restored to the country, but that access rates were still below 70% of their normal levels.
Netblocks director Alp Toker told CPJ in an email that “a significant proportion of wireless and fixed-line users are back [online],” but that the organization did not know which specific regions or demographics remain disconnected.
In March, Mauritanian authorities detained bloggers Abderrahmane Weddady and Cheikh Ould Jiddou on false news charges in the run-up to the country’s elections, as CPJ reported at the time.
]]>Weddady and Jiddou each responded to a summons by Mauritania’s Economic Crimes Unit on March 22 and have been detained since then, according to posts on each blogger’s Facebook page and Nasser Weddady, the blogger’s brother, who spoke with CPJ.
The two are currently being held at Dar Naim prison, Weddady’s brother said, and are awaiting trial after being charged with “spreading false news.” Nasser Weddady added that each blogger was subject to an 18-hour interrogation on March 25 without a lawyer present.
“The jailing of Abderrahmane Weddady and Cheikh Ould Jiddou is an outrage, and the charges against them demonstrate how allegations of ‘false news’ are weaponized against journalists who are critical of those in power,” CPJ Advocacy Director Courtney Radsch said from Washington, D.C. “Mauritanian authorities must free both bloggers immediately and stop persecuting the news media.”
Jiddou and Weddady have reported on corruption in Mauritania, including on allegations that President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz misappropriated funds, had a $2 billion account in the United Arab Emirates, and benefited from illicit real estate schemes run by his friend, according to Weddady’s brother and news reports.
President Abdel Aziz has denied the allegations that he misappropriated funds, and Finance Minister Moctar Ould Diay said that the president’s friend acted according to the law, according to news reports. The Mauritanian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not answer the phone when CPJ called to request comment on the bloggers’ detention and charges, as well as the allegations against the president. An email to the office of the Mauritanian ambassador to the U.S. seeking comment on the bloggers’ case and on the allegations against the president did not receive a response.
Both bloggers were summoned by the Economic Crimes Unit in early March and questioned about their reporting on the misappropriation allegations against the president, and were asked why they did not file an official complaint rather than writing about it online, according to Weddady’s brother, who added that authorities seized the bloggers’ passports and identification cards after the interrogation was finished.
Nasser Weddady told CPJ that his brother is prediabetic, and therefore needs to eat at regular intervals; he said that while his family has been bringing food to Dar Naim prison for his brother, he does not believe it is being given to him in a timely manner.
Last year, Mauritanian authorities jailed two journalists for a week over a defamation complaint from a businessman whom they alleged had ties to the government, according to CPJ reporting.
]]>February 20, 2019
Sent via email: ambarimwash@gmail.com
I write to you from the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent organization that monitors and advocates for press freedom worldwide, to request a meeting with you and other senior members of your government regarding the wrongful imprisonment of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who remains in jail despite the fact that he was scheduled to be released.
A Mauritanian court sentenced Mohamed to death in December 2014 on apostasy-related charges, after he published an article in which he criticized the Mauritanian caste system. After the blogger repented, an appeals court in November 2017 reduced Mohamed’s death sentence to two years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 60,000 Mauritanian ouguiya ($172). Having spent more than three years in prison at the time of this verdict, Mohamed was scheduled to be released. Yet he remains in government custody.
In December 2017, CPJ, along with other non-governmental organizations, sent a letter to Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz calling on the government to immediately release Mohamed, who is also known by the name of Mohamed Cheikh Ould M’khaitir, and take steps to guarantee his safety upon release.
CPJ is therefore deeply troubled by President Abdel Aziz’s recent response to the blogger’s detention. In December 2018, the president told French daily Le Monde, “He [Mohamed] has been tried and he should normally be released. But a large majority of the population opposes it. His release may pose problems of security to our country. For this reason, we are keeping him until we find a solution.”
Mohamed’s prolonged detention is taking a serious toll on his health. His sister told CPJ that the blogger suffers from physical ailments, such as acute pain in his head and body, in addition to psychological trauma. A doctor saw Mohamed and, despite his professional recommendation for medical care, Mauritanian authorities still have not granted Mohamed access to treatment, according to his sister.
We hope to work with you to secure Mohamed’s deserved release and to ensure his safety after his release. Swift action would contribute to creating an environment conducive to freedom of the press in Mauritania. We are available to meet you or a representative of your government at your convenience to elaborate on our concerns and recommendations. We look forward to your response.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Courtney Radsch
]]>Judicial police on August 8 arrested Babacar Ndiaye, editor-in-chief of Cridem, according to his employer and other news reports. They arrested Mahmoudi Seybout, publisher of Taqadoum, later the same day, his employer and other news websites reported. A local newspaper, Al-Akhbar, quoted members of both journalists’ families as saying that they were not allowed to visit the journalists.
According to Taqadoum and Al-Akhbar, the arrests came after Paris-based lawyer Jemal Taleb filed a criminal defamation complaint against both journalists. The Mauritanian news website Initiatives News reported that Taqadoum had initially posted an article about Taleb’s alleged ties to the Mauritanian government, which was then summarized by the Francophone Africa-focused news website Mondafrique. Cridem then republished the Mondafrique article, according to Initiative News.
CPJ could not locate the article on either Cridem or Taqadoum‘s website. Cridem on August 9 published on its website an apology to Taleb for defaming him in an article, but did not link to the article or elaborate on its contents.
In an emailed response to CPJ on August 14, Taleb confirmed that he had filed a complaint against Cridem and Taqadoum without specifying whether he had named either journalist in the proceeding.
CPJ could not reach either journalist by phone. Taqadoum Editor-in-Chief Choaib Haj told CPJ on August 23 via WhatsApp that Seybout was negotiating to resolve the case, but did not give further information. Cridem did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for information.
CPJ’s email query to the Mauritanian National Army, under which the Mauritanian Gendarmerie governs the local police, went unanswered. CPJ was unable to contact the national police because the email function on their website did not work and no address was provided.
]]>December 6, 2017
Dear President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz,
We, the undersigned international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), ask you to ensure that blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, also known by the name of Mohamed Cheikh Ould M’kaitir, regains his freedom since he has served his sentence. We also urge you to take steps to guarantee Mohamed’s safety upon his release.
A Mauritanian court sentenced Mohamed to death in December 2014 on apostasy-related charges after he published an article titled “Religion, religiosity, and craftsman,” in which he criticized the Mauritanian caste system. The court ruled that the article was blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad, despite the blogger repenting in court and saying he did not intend to insult the prophet.
Based on Mohamed’s repentance, an appeals court in the city of Nouadhibou on November 9, 2017, reduced Mohamed’s death sentence to two years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 60,000 Mauritanian ouguiya ($172).
Having spent more than three years in prison, Mohamed was scheduled to be released, yet he remains in custody, according to a November 16 press statement from the former Justice Minister Ibrahim Ould Daddah. The blogger’s relatives told CPJ that they have not been able to visit him or confirm his whereabouts.
Since Mohamed’s imprisonment three years ago, preachers have called for his death. Moreover, your cabinet on November 16 approved a bill to amend Article 306 of the penal code that would punish “defamation to God, the Prophet Muhammad, Holy Books, angels or prophets” by death. Under the bill, repentance would not allow authorities to reduce the sentence or drop charges as they had previously done in Mohamed’s case. In his November 16 press statement, then Justice Minister Ibrahim Ould Daddah said that the law will not be applied retroactively, but Mohamed’s continued detention is deeply concerning to us.
In an April 14 interview with Rcadio France Internationale, Your Excellency said that you will ensure Mohamed’s safety, just like any other Mauritanian, once the court orders his release. We urge you to ensure his prompt release and safety, regardless of political pressure.
We also urge you, Your Excellency, to reaffirm your vision of Mauritania as you described it in the interview: A country where people can practice democracy and have the freedom to write “whatever they want.” Abolishing laws that curtail press freedom, and freedom of speech, would be a step towards this vision.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Sherif Mansour
Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator
Committee to Protect Journalists
Christophe Deloire
Secretary General
Reporters Without Borders
Carles Torner
Executive Director
PEN International
Eric Goldstein
Deputy Director of Middle East and North Africa division
Human Rights Watch
Karin Deutsch Karlekar
Director, Free Expression at Risk Programs
PEN America
Maran Turner
Executive Director
Freedom Now
Stephen Cockburn
Deputy Regional Director Research, West and Central Africa Office
Amnesty International
A Mauritanian court sentenced Mohamed to death in 2014 on apostasy charges after he published an article entitled “Religion, religiosity, and craftsman,” CPJ documented at the time.
In the article, the journalist criticized Mauritania’s caste system, an extremely delicate subject, and said followers of Islam interpreted the religion according to circumstance, Reuters reported at the time. According to news reports, the court found that the article was blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad.
In court in 2014, Mohamed said he had not intended to insult the Prophet Muhammad and repented, according to news reports.
Based on Mohamed’s repentance, an appeals court in the city of Nouadhibou on November 9, 2017, reduced Mohamed’s death sentence to two years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 60,000 Mauritanian ouguiya ($172), according to news reports.
Having served more than three years in prison, the blogger was scheduled to be released, but has remained in custody, according to his sister Ayecha Mint Cheikh and a press statement from the justice minister, Ibrahim Ould Daddah.
Under the newly approved law, “defamation to God, the Prophet Muhammad, Holy Books, angels or prophets” is punishable by death, and repentance would not allow authorities to reduce the sentence or drop charges as they had previously done in Mohamed’s case. The law also allows courts to uphold retroactively any previous sentences that contradict the new amendment, according to AMI and Agence France-Presse.
“Instead of reforming laws to protect journalists from facing the injustices that Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed has been through, the Mauritanian authorities have passed a far more repressive law,” CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said. “We call on Mauritanian authorities to immediately release Mohamed, and abolish laws that curtail press freedom, rather than making them more stringent.”
The justice minister told al-Akhbar that the amended law will not be applied retroactively.
Mohamed’s article originally led to nationwide demonstrations in January 2014, in which protesters called for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to punish Mohamed for what they saw as blasphemy. In response, Aziz told the protesters, “Websites, free TV stations, and journalists should respect our religion. … We will do everything that is necessary to protect the Islamic religion and to defend the Messenger of Allah,” according to news reports. Several religious scholars have been calling for Mohamed’s execution, and have led ongoing protests condemning the reduced sentence against the blogger, according to news reports.
The blogger’s family and lawyers have not been able to visit him since the court reduced his sentence, his sister told CPJ. The blogger’s lawyer, Fatimata M’bay, told local newspaper al-Akhbar that she has no information about Mohamed’s exact location.
Since President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called a referendum in August to abolish the country’s senate after it ruled against expanding presidential powers, Mauritanian authorities have taken steps to crack down on critical journalists, CPJ documented. The Mauritanian Radio and Television Broadcast Authority ordered Mauritania’s five privately owned news stations to shut down for “failing to fulfil their financial agreements” with the country’s broadcast regulator, localmedia reported. Separately, prosecutors have accused at least four journalists of allegedly accepting bribes from Mohamed Bouamatou, who is the president’s cousin and a vocal critic of the ruling party, and belonging to an “organized movement” to “disturb public order,” according to news reports.
]]>Local journalists with whom CPJ spoke said the move is the latest sign of a crackdown on the independent press, during unrest after President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz called a referendum in August–which was boycotted by the opposition–to abolish the country’s Senate after it ruled against expanding presidential powers. In recent months, journalists have been attacked and detained while covering protests over the public referendum, which voted in favor of abolishing the Senate, and critical news outlets have faced legal action.
In the case of the privately owned stations, Mauritania’s regulator sent letters to Dava, Sahel TV, Chinguitt, al-Watania and Al-Mourabitoun TV saying that they had one day’s notice to pay all outstanding fees, or their broadcasts would be blocked, according to news reports. The order means only the state-run news channel is currently operating, according to reports.
At least one station was removed from air earlier. After the letters were sent to the stations yesterday, representatives from the tax authority went to the office of al-Mourabitoun TV, a channel that is generally supportive of the country’s opposition Islamist parties, ordered the employees to leave, and locked the doors, according to news reports. The agents told staff that the channel owed 2 million ouguiyas (US$5,600), in tax, according to the same reports.
Al-Mourabitoun TV, Dava, and Sahel did not immediately respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via email and social media. CPJ was unable to find contact information for Chinguitt and al-Watania.
The Mauritanian Supreme Press Authority did not immediately respond to CPJ’s email requesting comment.
Journalists covering protests over the referendum have also faced harassment. Ahmed al-Moustafa, a reporter at the local newspaper al-Akhbar told CPJ that he was harassed by police while filming an opposition protest in July. The journalist said that despite showing his press card, he was “dragged” into a police vehicle, where he was held for an hour. Al-Moustafa said that the police beat another journalist from al-Akhbar, whose identity al-Moustafa declined to disclose, while covering another protest, and held him for four hours.
Police also body-slammed and dragged Baba Ould Harma, a correspondent for Al-Jazeera while he was covering a protest in the capital, Nouakchott, Mohamed Ould Abdou, a blogger who photographed the incident, told CPJ.
“Photographers and video journalists were the primary target,” al-Moustafa said. “The police hold them in vans until the protests are over so they can’t obtain any footage.”
Mauritania’s National Gendarmerie, which governs the local police, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.
Separately, on August 25, police arrested four journalists–Moussa Sambasy, editor-in-chief of Le Quotidien de Nouakchott; Jedna Ould Deida, the director of news website Mauriweb; Babacar Baye Ndiaye, editor-in-chief of news website Cridem and his publisher Aminata Houdou, known as Rela Ba–and questioned them about their outlets’ funding and critical coverage of the arrest of opposition senator Mohamed Ould Ghadda, according to local news reports. They were released the same day. Police attempted to arrest Ahmed Ould Cheikh, editor-in-chief of the weekly Le Calame, but the journalist was out of the country at the time, according to news reports.
Sambasy, Baye Ndiaye, Ba, and Ould Cheikh are accused of allegedly accepting “bribes” from Mohamed Bouamatou, who is the president’s cousin and a vocal critic of the ruling party, and belonging to “an organized movement” to “disturb public order,” according to news reports. The journalists are under judicial supervision, which entails a regular check-in with prosecutors, a travel ban, asset freeze, and confiscation of passports, according to the same reports. No trial date has been set yet.
In a column that Ould Cheikh wrote for Le Calame in September, he described himself and his co-accused as “collateral victims” of the fight between the president and the opposition.
“The fight is crude,” he wrote. “The [case] file is so empty that any form of justice or independence does not seem possible.”
]]>President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz
Islamic Republic of Mauritania
Ministère du Secrétariat Général à la Présidence
B.P.184 Nouakchott, Mauritanie
Fax: +222 525 85 52
Dear President Abdel Aziz,
The organizations signing below write to express their concern for the life of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, also known as Mohamed Ould M’Kaitir. We also ask that your government do everything it can to secure his release.
Mauritania’s Supreme Court is expected to review Mohamed’s case on November 15. The blogger faces the death penalty following his conviction in 2014 on blasphemy charges stemming from an article he published on the news website Aqlame on December 31, 2013, titled, “Religion, religiosity, and craftsmen,” which criticized Mauritania’s caste system.
Mohamed has repeatedly repented. On January 11, 2014, he issued a statement from prison denying that he intended to insult the Prophet Mohamed. In an unsuccessful, April 21, 2016, appeal, he said that he had made a mistake, and asked for forgiveness.
Article 306 of the Penal Code gives the Supreme Court power to cancel or reduce his sentence to a maximum of two years in jail and up to 60,000 ouguiya (US$173) if it determines that he has repented. We hope the court will order Mohamed’s release, given his demonstrated contrition.
Regardless of the court’s ruling, we ask you to instruct your government to ensure his physical safety inside and outside prison. Since his imprisonment two years ago, preachers have called for his death, according to press reports. Those who have spoken out on his behalf have themselves been labeled as infidels and received violent threats, according to news accounts.
In April 2014 you told reporters that you did not believe Mohamed was aware of the seriousness of what he had written. In this spirit, we ask you to acknowledge his repentance and ensure his safe release from prison.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Executive Director
Committee to Protect Journalists
Christophe Deloire
Secretary General
Reporters Without Borders
Karin D. Karlekar
Director of Free Expression At Risk Programs
PEN America
Maran Turner
Executive Director
Freedom Now
CC:
Commissioner for Human rights,
Humanitarian action and relations with civil society
Ms Aichetou Mint M’Haiham
Commissariat aux Droits de l’Homme,
à l’Action humanitaire et aux Relations avec la société civile
B.P. 1258 Nouakchott Mauritanie
Fax: + 222 45 29 21 55
presidente@cndhmauritanie.mr
His Excellency Mohamed Lemine El Haycen,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of Mauritania to the United Nations
116 East 38th Street New York, N.Y. 10016
Fax: (212) 252-0175
Email: mauritaniamission@gmail.com
S.E. Ambassadeur Mme Salka Mint Bilal Yamar
Mission permanente de la Mauritanie auprès de l’Office des Nations unies à Genève, Suisse.
Fax: +41 22 906 18 41
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