Can you help free Biram again?
By Joanna Ewart-James, From Freedom United
Unbelievably, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid has been remanded in prison, arrested on the same day he was planning to submit his candidature for the upcoming Mauritanian elections.[1]
Add your name to help free Biram!
Biram, president of anti-slavery organization the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement, was taken from his home during the early hours of Tuesday August 7, to a squalid, windowless prison cell, in a police station in Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott.
He was charged last Monday with attempted assault and threatening the use of violence. This happened just a matter of days after he returned from the US, where Biram had participated in a Congressional Briefing on the issue of slavery.[2]
Call for Biram’s unconditional release from prison.
This is not the first time that politically-motivated charges have been used against Biram and other anti-slavery activists in Mauritania, West Africa. We initially launched a campaign in November 2014 to free Biram and his colleague, who were imprisoned on false charges for their work in the anti-slavery movement.
By coming together as a community of activists and organizations taking action and calling for his release, 18 months later, Biram and his colleague were freed.
