Death sentences¶

Children under the age of 16 cannot be given the death penalty under Mauritanian law. Minors from the ages of 16 to 18 (being the “age of majority”) can receive the death penalty.
The legislation allows the death penalty for “crimes of homosexuality”. Since 2018, acts of apostasy and blasphemy have been punishable by death.

There is no accurate data on the number of people sentenced to death by type of offence. Most death penalties are imposed for intentional homicide, armed robbery, rape, infanticide and adultery.

Executions¶

Mauritania has a moratorium on executions. The last executions were ordered in 1982 by a civil jurisdiction, and in 1987, by a military tribunal.

Prisoners sentenced to death awaiting execution¶

The number of people sentenced to death in the country rose from 77 in 2016 to more than 123 in 2020. This number included two females: one for conspiracy to murder and the other for intentional homicide. A man and woman were sentenced to death for acts which occurred when they were minors. The exact number of foreign nationals sentenced to death is unknown. In 2010, six foreigners of Nigerian, Guinean and Gambian nationalities were sentenced to death in Mauritanian prisons. Two foreigners, one from Guinea-Bissau and one from Mali were listed in the 2017 ECPM fact-finding mission.

Pardons and commutations¶

The president of the Republic has the right to grant pardons, remissions or sentence commutations. A person sentenced to death was pardoned in March 2016. The total number of requests and pardons granted is not disclosed.

Incarcerated persons can “have access to a lawyer from the outset of his or her deprivation of liberty or access to the assistance of a person of his or her choosing and prompt access to legal aid, where appropriate” (2015 Law on the fight against torture). In practice, this provision is rarely applied, often ignored by the police force, and unavailable to lawyers. The ECPM fact-finding mission noted that “because of the absence of effective legal aid funding and a list of lawyers who provide legal aid, destitute prisoners on death row suffer double discrimination”. Court appointed lawyers are usually told at the last minute before the trial. According to Mauritanian lawyers, most of those sentenced to death were not able to access a lawyer until they were condemned at first instance.

People accused of capital offences are regularly subjected to procedural setbacks throughout their trial period. According to the Human Rights Committee, this could constitute cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, when the procedure results in the death penalty.

The defendants are not assigned a judge who is specially trained in detention and sentencing issues. For those facing the death penalty, the possibility of obtaining information about their detention regime and any recourse is greatly reduced.

According to the law, those sentenced to death must be able to obtain “a lawyer’s visit any time, (…) in the presence of a guard whose only responsibility is to ensure that security rules are followed”. Lawyers wishing to visit their client must request authorisation from a tribunal. Lawyer-client confidentiality is not guaranteed due to the lack of privacy and, occasionally, the presence of prison staff.

Most of the lawyers practice in the capital (90 %). Prisoners sentenced to death who are outside of Nouakchott, have almost no access to the legal aid they are entitled to. One female lawyer said: “most of the people receiving the death penalty at their trial are transferred to Bir Moghreïn Prison. Once they are there, it is almost impossible for them to launch an appeal with their lawyer”.

“I can visit my clients anywhere in Mauritania, except at Bir Moghreïn, (…) because of the distance (You need five or six days to visit a client in that prison) and the cost entailed (…). It costs the equivalent of 400 to 450 Euros to lease a car for this kind of trip, not to mention the gas, lodging and meals.”

A lawyer defending prisoners who are sentenced to death.¶

Nordine Drici affirmed that other issues prevent access to lawyers: “Because of the political and social stigma attached to the death penalty in Mauritania, very few lawyers will take on these cases”. Lawyers who defend death sentenced prisoners are threatened and intimidated. According to one of them: “sermons (khutba) given during Friday prayer are sometimes used to denigrate the action of lawyers who defend prisoners sentenced to death.”

The law guarantees access to an interpreter if needed during the criminal proceeding. According to the ECPM fact-finding mission, this provision is not respected. One interpreter said: “The level of interpretation is usually fairly low, except for a few occasions, and there is no training in Mauritania for language expertise in legal matters. It is very rare to find an interpreter in legal procedures in Nouakchott, and almost non-existent in the other governorates of the country, which makes that legal safeguard very virtual.”

Women¶

Women sentenced to death are housed in the same women’s prison at Nouakchott, along with other prisoners. In 2018, this 40-bed prison held 33 prisoners, making it easier for civil society organisations to conduct activities there.

One woman sentenced to death said: “In the women’s prison, the first weeks were very hard. I didn’t have access to much. The national guards insulted us, and then I became the head of the court, the representative of the inmates, and because of this role, the guards respected me more.” She reported that contrary to the men, she was able to bathe and do her laundry regularly during her detention. She said she had seen a doctor two months after her admission and had been to a specialist at the hospital several times.

Foreign nationals¶

Foreigners sentenced to death live under the same detention conditions as the nationals. They are particularly vulnerable because they are frequently placed in Bir Moghreïn Prison. The geographic isolation of this facility makes it even more difficult to maintain family ties. According to the ECPM fact-finding mission “foreigners sentenced to death are in a particularly difficult situation since their country’s consular representatives are hardly ever told of the prisoner’s sentence, even when it is a capital punishment”.

In theory, the law provides for access to an interpreter at all stages of the criminal proceedings. According to one interpreter, for prisoners sentenced to death, such as the country’s linguistic minorities, “it is very difficult to have a legal interpreter in Nouakchott and practically impossible in the other governorates of the country”. One woman said: “I was given the death penalty and could not understand anything during my trial conducted in Hassanya, a language I don’t speak.”.

According to the law, prisoners sentenced to death must be “placed in a special cell and be watched day and night for escape or suicide attempts”. This provision is not applied, as they are not separated from other prisoners, including those on remand.

In January 2017, 866 people were admitted to Dar Naïm Prison which has a 350-bed capacity. In 2016, the administration opened Bir Moghreïn Prison to address prison overcrowding. Most of the prisoners in Dar Naïm who had received the death penalty were transferred to the new prison to help alleviate the problems in the facilities in the capitol and its region. More than 80 % of those sentenced to death are now being held in Bir Moghreïn, which is located over a thousand kilometres from Nouakchott in the desert. It takes several days to reach the prison in a region with very little security, in a “complicated environment”. These trips require a lot of financial and material resources.

Under the 1970 decree establishing prison regulations, a monitoring commission must visit the facilities to verify the sanitary conditions, safety, food, health care, work activities and compliance with the prison regulations. The role of the commission is to examine the living conditions of all prisoners. The ECPM fact-finding mission warned that “the lack of personnel, financial and material resources considerably reduced the effectiveness of this commission and made its action merely anecdotal”.

Accommodation. The law provides a single cell accommodation. However, this is not possible due to prison overcrowding. To allow for ventilation, the cell doors at Dar Naïm Prison are left open all day.
The prisoners decide their cell assignment by ethnic background criteria.

Hygiene. Prison authorities are obliged to provide all prisoners with the necessary means to maintain their hygiene no matter what sentence they are serving. During his visit in 2018, Nordine Drici noted that there were many problems, especially in accessing water. The overcrowding in several prisons resulted in an insufficient number of sanitary facilities. One person sentenced to death reported having gone three months without a shower and a change of clothes.

Food. In 2017, the daily allotment for food and personal hygiene corresponded to less than a dollar per prisoner. This has not been revised in more than ten years. Some prisoners receive additional food, which usually occurs when they have an occasional visit from their family.

Activities and work. According to the law, all prisoners must be allowed to go outside at least two hours a day. For those subjected to sanctions, this outing is reduced to one hour. Prisoners sentenced to death are not permitted to work. According to the law, they can “smoke, read and write anytime”. The ECPM fact-finding mission indicated that the interior of the facility is relatively open, and prisoners sentenced to death can move about easily. They don’t have access to sports equipment or organised activities, and vocational training are limited. These restrictions are a result of the reduced budget that the administration allocates for activities or training. It delegates most of these tasks to organisations. The location of Bir Moghreïn Prison hinders their implementation.

According to the law, prisoners sentenced to death must be able to receive unlimited visits from a chaplain. In reality, they do not have access to spiritual guidance. Religious practices are the responsibility of the prisoners themselves.

Legally speaking, prisoners sentenced to death have the same right to maintain family ties as other prisoners. This is almost impossible for prisoners sentenced to death at Bir Moghreïn. Their transfer to this facility does not take family ties into consideration.

They can receive visits from “their closest relatives” twice a week on day chosen by the administration. The department of penal affairs and the prison administration may decide to grant a special visitation permit. Relatives are free to bring books, food and medication. A list of authorised items is available to the public.

The communication between prisoners sentenced to death and their families is supervised according to each facility’s security protocols. After an incident at Nouakchott Prison, Salafists sentenced to death are subjected to additional security measures; they are no longer allowed to have contact visits.

Officials can seize a prisoner’s correspondence.

The administration and the local health authorities are responsible for the prevention and control of diseases and epidemics in prison.

None of the prisoners sentenced to death who were interviewed mentioned going through a medical examination upon entering the prison. This lack of care prevents the detection of contagious diseases and mental health problems.

The ECPM fact-finding mission showed that the nursing staff has few resources and equipment. Technical problems, such as the breakdowns of transfer vehicles, can sometimes delay health care access by several months. Many deaths are recorded each year in Mauritanian prisons due to health care issues.

• Nordine Drici, Mauritanie : le bagne au pays des sables, rapport ECPM, 2019. (in French)

• Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Database on Mauritania.

• Prison Insider, Mauritania: sentenced to death then pardoned, 2019.

• Prison Insider, Mauritania : prisons are changing, but problems remain, 2018.

• Amnesty International, Le blogueur mauritanien Mohamed Mkhaïtir raconte ses premiers jours en prison, 2019. (in French)

• RFI, Mauritanie : rapport sur la peine de mort, “un bagne au pays des sables”, 2019. (Podcast in French)

• La Croix, Dans les prisons de Mauritanie, le calvaire d’un apostat, 2019. (in French)

• Alkarama, Mauritania: Malian national sentenced to death following unfair, 2016.