Mbairika Mint M’bareck

Dear friends,

I have just spoken with the SOS-Esclaves lawyer, who has learned from the State Prosecutor that the zina charges against Mbairika Mint M’bareck were dropped several weeks ago. We are just learning this wonderful news.  This is obviously a great relief for everyone involved in the case, including SOS-Esclaves, whose tireless lobbying on this case likely led to the charges not being pursued.

However, we are still very concerned about the disturbing message sent by the fact that Mbeirika faced charges of zina for some time. We will still be pursuing meetings with the Ministry of Justice to raise the issue of the State attempting to punish a victim in this way.

Furthermore, no action has yet been taken to prosecute the mistress (or her husband) who acknowledged in the court hearing that the girl was her property. Given the number of slavery cases pending before the Mauritanian courts, with no action from the State to prosecute masters (and indeed, efforts to block cases from moving forward at every level), we consider it unlikely that Mbeirika’s mistress will be brought to justice. Indeed, Mbeirika remains at risk of retribution from the family who enslaved her, and several of her sisters apparently remain in slavery with other branches of the same family of ‘masters’.

We will continue to lobby for a full investigation and the pursuit of slavery charges against Mbeirika’s mistress and other alleged slave-owners in the cases we are pursuing (I attach some details of cases compiled by a group of anti-slavery NGOs last year as an example). I hope we can count on your support as we do this.

Many thanks for your willingness to sign and share this letter.

Sarah

Sarah Mathewson
Africa Programme Co-ordinator
Anti-Slavery International