Mauritania releases Facebook blogger convicted of blasphemy

A Mauritanian blogger who became jailed for more than 5 years after being convicted of blaspheming the Muslim Prophet Muhammad has been released. Rights agencies had waged a protracted marketing campaign to comfortable Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed M’khaitir’s release. He was due for release in 2017. However, the government refused to announce he could be lynched. Conservative Muslims had demanded his execution for a Facebook put-up he wrote about the Prophet Muhammad.

In the publication from 2014, M’khaitir wondered about the alternatives made with the aid of the Prophet Muhammad during holy wars in the seventh century. He also lashed out at the mistreatment of black Mauritanians, whom M’khaitir argued had been discriminated against. He was convicted of blasphemy that identical year and sentenced to loss of life, but the sentence was commuted to two years in prison after an attraction. He should have been released in 2017 because he had already spent years in jail; however, crowds of conservative Muslim protesters called for his execution, forcing authorities to detain him on “security grounds.”

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M’khaitir made statements of repentance on Facebook and TV as a situation of his launch after an assembly between rights groups, nonsecular leaders, and outgoing President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, said rights institution Reporters Without Borders. ““This blogger became francophone Africa’s longest-held citizen-journalist. We thank all those who contributed to his release,” stated Christophe Deloire, the group’s secretary-well. Mauritania has amended its criminal code, and the demise penalty is now mandatory for all people convicted of what’s seen as blasphemous speech.