On 27 April 2018, The National Assembly of Mauritania passed a law that makes the death penalty mandatory for anyone convicted of “blasphemous speech” and acts deemed “sacrilegious.”
Human rights experts from the UN, the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), and more than 20 NGOs have called upon the government of Mauritania to review and rescind Article 306 of the Criminal Code that carries the mandatory death sentence for people convicted of blasphemous speech or any acted deemed to be sacrilegious.
Prior to 27 April, the law permitted three days during which convicted defendants were allowed to repent. It appears that the revision to the Code was engendered by the high-profile case of a Mauritanian blogger, Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaïtir. Mkhaïtir, a member of the blacksmith caste, had posted a blog in “denouncing the use of religion to legitimize discriminatory practices” against his caste. [Missions Box] Read more
