The Mauritanian parliament has adopted on Friday the new law on apostasy, effectively repealing the old provisions.
According to the new provisions, an apostate is considered to be someone who insults Allah, his angels, his prophets and his books.
The person will be punished with the death penalty and, even if he repents, he will be fined from 50,000 to 600,000 ouguiyas, or from 75,000 to 905,000 CFA francs.
The repealed text stipulates: “Any Muslim guilty of the crime of apostasy, either by word or by action in an apparent or obvious manner, will be invited to repent within three days.
“If he does not repent within this time, he is condemned to death as apostate and his property will be confiscated for the benefit of the public treasury. If he repents before the execution of this sentence, the prosecution will seize the Supreme Court, for the purpose of its rehabilitation in all its rights”.
The Mauritanian authorities explain this revision by the fact that the old provisions were in contradiction with the “Malikite doctrine” which is that of the Mauritanian State.
