Imprisonment and Beatings of Anti-Slavery Activists in Mauritania

Oct. 16th 2018

IRA – USA stands in solidarity with Mauritanians beaten and imprisoned for their defense of human rights.

We support the renewed petition hosted by Freedom Now that calls for the release of Biram Dah Abeid from prison and for an end to the police harassment of human rights defenders.

 

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October 15, 2018

Your Excellency Minister Dia Moctar Malal,

The arrest of the president of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement

(IRA) Biram Dah Abeid and Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud (IRA member) on 7 August and their

subsequent detention on remand, is a matter of grave concern to us. We write ahead of his

hearing, to seek your assurances that he will benefit from all fair trial guarantees, including

legal assistance and release pending trial.

Our concern is shared by over 230,000 people around the world who have signed a petition*

addressed to yourself and President Mohamed Ould Abel Aziz, calling for an end to the

harassment of anti-slavery activists and for Mr Abeid’s release pending his fair trial.

The President of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) is

recognised for his work internationally, having received the United Nations Prize in the Field of

Human Rights in 2013, as well as others. In recent years, Biram Dah Abeid has been imprisoned

three times. The timing of Mr Abeid’s latest arrest on the closing day for the registration of

candidates for the national elections took place in the context of an ongoing clampdown on

Mauritania’s anti-slavery movement, in particular arbitrary arrests and detention.

Since 2014, Mauritanian authorities have resorted to a range of measures to discourage or

punish anti-slavery activists from IRA. Our organisations have over this period documented

over 63 cases of arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders, at least a dozen of whom were

reported to have been subjected to torture and other-ill treatment in detention.

In July 2016, 13 anti-slavery activists were arrested charged with “armed assembly”, “violence

against agents of the public force” rebellion, and “membership of an unregistered

organization”. Whilst three were acquitted in 2016, two of those convicted, without any

evidence having been provided at trial – Abdellahi Matalla Saleck and Moussa Bilal Biram –

were released in July this year after serving their sentence. Their detention in a remote Saharan

desert prison, with no realistic possibility of visits by their lawyers or family, and reported

torture and ill-treatment in detention, attracted international concern.

Together we call on you to bring an end to the harassment and intimidation of those seeking to

secure the rights of the disempowered, specifically, anti-slavery activists Biram Dah Abeid and

Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud, and to take steps to ensure that justice and the rule of law

prevail in Mauritania.

* The petition can be viewed here.

Yours sincerely,

The Abolition Institute

Amnesty International

Anti-Slavery International

Freedom United

Front Line Defenders

Freedom Now

International Trade Union Confederation

IRA – Mauritanie, Netherlands

IRA – USA

Minority Rights Group

SOS – esclaves

Unrepresented Peoples Organization (UNPO)

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