Six human rights activists have been on trial in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott since Wednesday for publicly protesting against the enslavement of two under-age girls. The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls attention to this scandalous, unjust trial. One of the accused just recently visited Germany, in June 2010, on an invitation from this Göttingen-based human rights organization.

"The Mauritanian government is abusing the justice system to silence the opponents of slavery," criticized the head of the Africa section at the STP, Ulrich Delius, on Thursday. "Thirty years after slavery was officially abolished in this northwestern African nation, the trial is a throwback to the times when mentioning this horrific human rights abuse was taboo." The human rights activists will most likely be sentenced on Thursday.

"Before the law making slavery punishable was passed in 2007, public criticism of slavery was dangerous," reported Delius. Simply being interviewed by a foreign media outlet was enough to condemn the interviewee to prison in those days. Since August 2008, however, there is a new regime which supposedly rejects the old policies.

The six human rights activists now on trial are accused of attacking the police in front of the police headquarters in Nouakchott on 13 December 2010, when the activists spontaneously demanded the release of two enslaved children. According to research by the civil rights activists, the 9 and 13-year-old girls are being kept as slaves by an employee of the country's central bank, forced to do housework without pay. When the allegations were played down in a hearing before the police, the human rights activists responded by demonstrating in front of the police station. Fifteen demonstrators were arrested at the time, including the chair of the anti-slavery movement IRA (Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste) and erstwhile guest of the STP, Biram Dah Abeid.

Officials have been trying to silence Biram Dah Abeid ever since he publicly criticized Mauritania's continued slavery practices, in February of 2009 in France. For example, they circulated a false health certificate on the Internet saying he was mentally ill. He was also labeled a "friend of Israel" and "enemy of the state," because his criticism allegedly harmed the country's image.

Even after the official abolition of serfdom in 1981, slavery continues, particularly in rural areas of Mauritania. The majority of victims are the 550,000 Haratin of sub-Saharan Africa, working as unpaid farm laborers or domestic workers.

For further information pleace contact Ulrich Delius: 0049-(0)551-49906-27

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford