MAURITANIA

[Update on Rapid Action 2/9/10]

International PEN welcomes the release of online newspaper editor Hanevy Ould Dehah on February 26, 2010, following a presidential pardon. Dehah had served a total of eight months in prison for allegedly "offending public decency" in an article about a politician. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Hanevy Ould Dehah, editor of the news web site Taqadoumy (Arabic for Progressive), was released from Dart Naim prison in the capital Nouakchott on February 26, 2010, along with around 100 other prisoners. The presidential pardon was reportedly issued in honor of Mawlid, the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday.

Dehah was arrested June 18, 2009, following a complaint by the head of the opposition Alliance for Justice and Democracy/ Movement for Renovation (AJD/MR), who was then a presidential candidate. The politician was reportedly angered by an April 22 article that referred to his alleged purchase of a villa costing 30 million ouguiyas (approx. about 83,000 Euros) in one of the capital’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

Dehah was charged on June 24, and on August 19 was given a six-month prison sentence for "offending public decency." Taking into account the two months he had spent in prison before being sentenced, he should have been released on December 24, 2009. However, instead of freeing him, the authorities called for a retrial, citing alleged procedural flaws in the first trial. On February 4, 2010, he was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of violating public decency, inciting revolt and "criminal publication." Press freedom groups described Dehah’s retrial as arbitrary and politically motivated.

Thank you to all who sent appeals.
 
NO FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED


RELATED LINKS

>> Rapid Action 2/9/10

>> PEN's letter of appeal