On 23 May of last year, fourteen prisoners sentenced to heavy punishments for terrorist infractions were taken in the middle of the night from the civil prison of Nouakchott by agents of the armed forces. Other detainees at the prison witnessed the event. Among those disappeared were Mohamed Sebti and Mohamed Hmednah, two Mauritanians aged 26 and 27.
Two weeks after the incident on 8 June, the personal effects of the forteen detainnes-books, mattresses, and blankets-were returned to their families without further explanation by the penitentiary administration.