2 July 2009

Alert

Detained website editor faces up to five years in prison


Incident details

Charges laid

Hanevy Ould Dehah, Editor

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(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders condemns the charges of "violating public decency", "inciting crimes" and "publishing court statements still under the seal of confidentiality" that were brought against Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy (http://www.taqadoumy.com ), on 24 June 2009. Dehah, who has been held since 18 June, was taken to Dart Naim prison after being charged.

"We urge the authorities to explain the charges brought against Dehah, who has not yet been tried, and to produce evidence to support them," Reporters Without Borders said. "They are out of proportion to the article that prompted his arrest. We suspect the authorities are using this prosecution to silence the website."

Dehah faces a possible five-year jail sentence when he is brought to trial, which should be within the next month.

He was arrested on 18 June on the orders of the Nouakchott prosecutor's office as a result of a complaint by presidential candidate Ibrahima Moctar Sarr, the head of the opposition Alliance for Justice and Democracy/Movement for Renovation (AJD/MR), over an article posted on Taqadoumy on 22 April 2009.

The article, headlined "The sudden fortune of Ibrahima Sarr," referred to "the purchase by Mr. Sarr of a villa costing 30 million ouguiyas (about 83,000 euros) on the Nouadhibou road in an area known as 'university lands', one of the capital's most elegant neighbourhoods." Sarr and his family described the article as "defamatory and baseless."


Source

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

More on this case

Website editor freed under presidential pardon 1 March 2010 Court imposes new two-year sentence on website editor 5 February 2010 Still held illegally, website editor re-tried on same charge 4 February 2010 Journalist held past his release date, begins hunger strike in protest 6 January 2010 Website editor gets six months in prison for "offending public decency" 21 August 2009 News website director arrested 24 June 2009

From other IFEX members

Website editor held illegally after detention order expires (RSF)
Editor faces possible prison sentence (MFWA)

Mauritania

Website editor freed under presidential pardon 1 March 2010 Court imposes new two-year sentence on website editor 5 February 2010 Still held illegally, website editor re-tried on same charge 4 February 2010 Journalist held past his release date, begins hunger strike in protest 6 January 2010 Another online journalist detained, released 16 September 2009


 
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