(Ecofin Agency) - Mauritanian journalists Jedna Deida and Babakar Baye Ndiaye who are being sued by the President’s son Badr Ould Abdel Aziz for defamation are yet to know how their ordeal will end. These two, Jiddna Deida, publishing director of Mauriweb, and Babakar Baye Ndiaye, webmaster of Cridem, reported that the President’s son shot a shepherd.

Subsequently, they were arrested on April 7, 2017, and placed under a detention warrant at the Nouakchott central prison. The following day, the Court of Nouakchott-sud decided on their provisional release as many of their peers proceeded to a protest march.

Finally, the process which was to take place on April 14 did not take place. According to El Yezid Ould El Yezid, one of the lawyers’ journalists, this is not reassuring. “Everything is still blur and unclear because the court told us that the prosecutor’s office withdrew the case. So the accusations remain and in theory the trial is still on. We don’t know when. So it’s still unclear and that worries us,” he said.

Concerns remain more so that the public prosecutor mentioned the following offenses: obvious offense, clear intent to damage and insult honour. These are crimes that fall under the penal code and not the Freedom of Press Act which decriminalizes press offences. The two journalists thus risk between 5 months to 6 years of imprisonment.