Biased justice in Mauritania is an affront to the International Community

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sharply criticizes the fact that three Mauritanian anti-slavery activists were sentenced to two years in prison. "The sentences are disproportionate and an affront to the International Community. In a true nation of law, the defendants should merely be charged with an administrative offense for not registering their protest rally officially. It is obvious that Mauritania is trying to intimidate human rights defenders in order to prevent further protests against the ongoing slavery," said Ulrich Delius, the STP's Africa-consultant, in Göttingen on Thursday. "Clearly, the sentences against the president of the Anti-slavery organization "IRA" (Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement) and his deputy are an attempt to silence one of the most important human rights organizations in Mauritania."

Today, a court in the town of Rosso sentenced Biram Dah Abeid, human rights activist and president of the IRA, his Deputy Brahim Bilal Ramdhane and also Djiby Sow, Head of the Human rights organization "Kawtal", to two years in prison for allegedly inciting a "rebellion". Seven other accused supporters of the IRA were acquitted. The trial against the reputable human rights activists, which had started on December 24, 2014, had gotten a lot of attention at home and abroad. The slavery critics had been arrested just outside Rosso on November 11, 2014. They had tried to form an unauthorized demonstration in order to present the local Governor with an appeal against land grabbing and slavery.

The harsh judgment is an affront against the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, which had demanded the human rights activists to be released. On December 16, 2014, the European Parliament had agreed on an according resolution. Biram Dah Abeid is winner of the Weimar Human Rights Prize and the Human Rights Award of the United Nations, the World organization's most important human rights award. For the past four years, the Mauritanian authorities refused to recognize the IRA as a regular non-governmental organization.

There are still about 500,000 people living as slaves in Mauritania – especially in rural areas – although slavery has officially been banned in the country for decades.