Other Islamic institutions and contexts Other Islamic authority or family context Nouadhibou, Mauritania · 2017

UN Working Group finds Mkhaitir's apostasy prosecution and detention arbitrary

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

state religious-law enforcement, criminal courts applying apostasy and blasphemy provisions, senior state authority

Organization

Islamic Republic of Mauritania

Spiritual nexus

Mkhaitir was prosecuted under state apostasy and blasphemy provisions after publishing an article criticizing the use of religion to justify slavery and caste discrimination. The Mauritanian government defended the restriction by invoking Islam as the religion of the state and people. The UN Working Group held that arrest and detention for this religious and political expression violated freedom of religion, opinion and expression and that presidential prejudgment undermined the fairness of the trial.

Institutional obedience or isolation
Threatened spiritual consequence
Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2014-12-24 · criminal conviction and death sentence

Criminal Court of Dakhlet Nouadhibou, Mauritania. The court convicted Mohammed Shaikh Ould Mohammed Ould Mkhaitir of hypocrisy and insulting the Prophet Muhammad and sentenced him to death by firing squad after an article criticizing the use of religion to justify slavery.
2017-01-31 · cassation

Supreme Court of Mauritania. The Supreme Court overturned the appellate judgment and remanded the matter to a differently composed appeal court.
2017-04-27 · international legal opinion

UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 35/2017. The Working Group found the detention arbitrary under categories II and III, requested immediate release and recommended compensation and guarantees of non-repetition.
2017-11-09 · remand judgment

Nouadhibou Court of Appeal, Mauritania. The court reduced the sentence to two years, already served, and a fine; authorities nevertheless continued to hold Mkhaitir until his permanent release in 2019.

Appellate history

Date in cited record · undefined

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Documented coercion mechanisms

apostasy and blasphemy prosecution
death sentence
arbitrary detention
presidential prejudgment
continued detention after sentence reduction

Primary record

Sources

intergovernmental legal opinion official arbitrary detention finding UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 35/2017 concerning Mohammed Shaikh Ould Mohammed Ould Mkhaitir, A/HRC/WGAD/2017/35 (adopted Apr. 27, 2017).: The official opinion records the article, arrest, charges, trial, death sentence, appellate history, Mauritania's response and the Working Group's findings that the detention violated freedom of religion and expression and was arbitrary under categories II and III.
un treaty body finding release and legal context UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Mauritania, CCPR/C/MRT/CO/2 (Aug. 23, 2019).: The Committee records that Mkhaitir spent more than five years detained for criticizing the use of Islam to justify racial discrimination and slavery, notes his release, and calls for abolition of the offense of apostasy.

Related record

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