ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA：
MAURITANIAN ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVISTS RELEASED

Two members of the anti-slavery organization Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) were arbitrarily arrested on 7 August in Nouakchott, west Mauritania. Biram Dah Abeid, IRA president and candidate to the September parliamentarian elections, and Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud have been charged and denied access to legal representation.

On 7 August, Biram Dah Abeid, president of the anti-slavery organisation, Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) and former presidential candidate, was arrested at his home on the day the nominations for parliamentarian elections were submitted, to which he was a candidate. No warrant was produced at the time of his arrest, and he was told it was based on “an order that came from above”. The elections took place on 1 September.

On 9 August, Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud, also an IRA member, was arrested in Nouakchott, west Mauritania. The two IRA members were arrested following a complaint by a journalist who accused Biram Dah Abeid of threatening him after doing a television documentary about him. Biram Dah Abeid and Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud’s lawyers have repeatedly been prevented from meeting them during their detention at the civil prison of Nouakchott. On 13 August, Biram Dah Abeid was charged with ‘voluntary assault on life and integrity of the person’, ‘incitement to voluntary assault on life’ and ‘threats of violence’. Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud was charged with ‘complicity’. Their lawyers were denied access to the police report and to the incriminating evidence referred to by the prosecution. The proceedings brought against them present many irregularities, including being detained without charge for 6 days and not being able to contact their lawyers.

Amnesty International considers the timing of their detention and the pattern of judicial harassment against members of IRA, suspicious of being politically motivated, happening close to the elections.

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Two anti-slavery activists Biram Dah Abeid and Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud were released from Nouakchott civil Prison on 31 December 2018. The Tribunal of Arafat in Nouakchott sentenced them to six months, two months of which would be a suspended sentence. Having already spent more than four months in prison, Biram and Abdellahi were released the same day.

NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUESTED. MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO SENT APPEALS.

On 31 December 2018, the Tribunal of Arafat in Nouakchott sentenced to Biram Dah Abeid, the newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Sawab/Rag coalition and President of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) and Abdellahi el Housein Mesoud, an IRA member to six months in prison. Two of those months would be suspended sentences. Having already spent more than four months in prison, Biram and Abdellahi were released the same day from Nouakchott Civil Prison.

Biram was arbitrarily arrested on 7 August 2018 in Nouakchott, west Mauritania at his home on the same day that his name was put forward as a candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections. No warrant was produced at the time of his arrest, and he was told it was based on “an order that came from above”. The elections took place on 1 September 2018 and he was elected as the MP for Sawab/Rag coalition.

Abdellahi was arrested in Nouakchott, west Mauritania on 9 August 2018.

The two IRA members were arrested following a complaint by a journalist who accused Biram Dah Abeid of threatening him after doing a television documentary about him. On 13 August 2018, Biram was charged with ‘voluntary assault on life and integrity of the person’, ‘incitement to voluntary assault on life’ and ‘threats of violence’. Abdellahi was charged with ‘complicity’. The journalist later withdrew his complaint, but the prosecutor still moved ahead with the case against the two anti-slavery activists.

After his release, Biram Dah Abeid shared the following message with an Amnesty International delegate, “I would to thank all Amnesty International members for their unconditional support every time that anti-slavery activists are arbitrarily arrested.”

NAME AND PREFERRED PRONOUN: Biram Dah Abeid
Abdellahi and Houssein Mesoud (He/His)

THIS IS THE SECOND AND FINAL OUTPUT FOR UA 164/18

LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr38/9046/2018/en/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr37/3776/2016/en/