Letter from Jail: Biram demands a trial

Today we received a letter from Biram Dah Abeid sent by him from the jail in Rosso Mauritania.  Biram and his colleagues from IRA face charges of  incitement to violence, troubling public order, outrage of the public authority, membership in a non-recognized organization.

Here is the letter, in French and English:

Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania (IRA) and the related party Radical for Global Action (RAG). The State’s refusal to allow us into the fold of legality feeds a multitude of informers and delators and allows, at the various levels of the security apparatus, to covertly ensure, in the shadows, a level of expenses that scrupulouslymatches their private interests. The ban on IRA and RAG legitimizes an enormous amount of embezzlement and opens the country to tensions at times irreversible.

Ainsi, moi Birame Dah Abeid, militant épris de la vérité et des lois universelles de l’Habeas Corpus, avec le souvenir constant de mes compatriotes rescapés de la torture ou victimes du meurtre extrajudiciaire, revendique mon droit, notre droit à comparaître devant la justice des hommes. Nous ne sortirons de prison qu’après la réalisation de ce préalable, à moins de nous faire expulser; le cas échéant, nous reviendrons y reprendre notre place d’opprimés en lutte.

Thus, I, Biram Dah Abeid, a militant with unshakeable belief in truth and the universal laws of Habeas Corpus, living in constant remembrance of my compatriots, who survived torture or fell victims to extrajudicial assassinations, hereby claim my right, our right to appear before the justice of men. We will leave prison when and only when this has been realized, unless we are expelled, in which case we will return and re-assume our position as oppressed people waging a struggle.

Je prie mes avocats de bien vouloir publier la présente déclaration, par tous moyens de presse et en mon nom.

I kindly ask my lawyers to please publish this statement in any and all press media, and in my name.

Prison civile de Rosso, le 8 Decembre 2014