Mauritania pardons MPs jailed over discrimination claim

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has pardoned two opposition lawmakers who were sentenced to four years in jail after accusing him of racial discrimination against Black people and descendants of slaves.

The state-run Mauritanian News Agency said Ghazouani announced the pardon in a decree on Thursday. The lawmakers, Mariem Cheikh and Ghamou Achour, had been accused of describing the president on social media as a force behind “apartheid in Mauritania”.

Both women are members of the human rights group the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement.

The court's decision in early May also ordered the removal of the digital content, the confiscation of the lawmakers' phones and the closure of their online accounts.

Slavery was officially abolished in Mauritania in 1981, but it persists and remains a sensitive issue. Penalties were increased in 2015.