MAURITANIA: Editor released


5 March 2010

Update #1 to RAN 08/10

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC) welcomes the release of online newspaper editor Hanevy Ould Dehah on 26 February 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.

MAURITANIA - Hanevy Ould Dahah (Taqadoumy.com)Hanevy Ould Dehah, editor of the news website Taqadoumy (Arabic for ‘Progressive' - http://www.taqadoumy.com/), was released from Dart Naim prison in the capital Nouakchott on 26 February 2010 along with around 100 other prisoners. The presidential pardon was reportedly issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed's birthday).

Dehah was arrested 18 June 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 a 22 April article which referred to his alleged purchase of a villa costing 30 million ouguiyas (approx. about 83,000 Euros) in one of the capital's chicest neighbourhoods.

Dehah was charged on 24 June and on 19 August 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 24 December 2009. However, instead of freeing him, the authorities called for a retrial, citing alleged procedural flaws in the first trial. On 4 February 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.

***No further action is required. Thank you for taking action in this case.***

For further information please contact Tamsin Mitchell at International PEN Writers in Prison Committee, Brownlow House, 50 / 51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER. Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7405 0338 Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7405 0339 Email: tamsin.mitchell@internationalpen.org.uk