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A blogger in Mauritania who drew international attention after he was sentenced to death over blasphemy has been released, his lawyer and campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.
Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkhaitir, 36, was sentenced to death in 2014 over a Facebook post about Islam but was then given a jail term on appeal.
He remained in detention for almost 6 years despite having already served the sentence – a situation that sparked a chorus of protests by rights groups.
“[He] was released yesterday from the place where he was under house arrest … [but] is not completely free in his movement,” Mkhaitir’s lawyer Fatimata Mbaye told AFP news agency.
Mkhaitir “is no longer in Nouakchott”, the Mauritanian capital, Mbaye said, without giving further details.
RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement: “We are deeply relieved that he has finally been freed after being held for more than five and a half years in almost total isolation.”
“For nothing more than a social network post, he was subjected to a terrible ordeal that violated a decision by his country’s own judicial system. This blogger was francophone Africa’s longest-held citizen-journalist,” Deloire said.
RSF shared a video on Twitter celebrating Mkhaitir’s release.
Mkhaitir’s release came in the final days of the presidency of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who had previously argued that freeing Mkhaitir would endanger the blogger as well as the public.
