Biram Dah Abeid

Detained Since: August 7, 2018.

Charges: Attempted assault and the threat of the use of violence.

Sentence: Six months already served.

Biography: Biram Dah Abeid is an anti-slavery activist and politician from Mauritania. He founded the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA-Mauritania), and was the recipient of the UN Human Rights’ Prize in December 2013 for his work on behalf of enslaved Mauritanians.

On November 11, 2014 Abeid and 16 fellow activists were arrested while taking part in protests against ongoing impunity for slave holders in the country. He was charged with membership in an unrecognized organization and taking part in an unauthorized assembly, and subsequently held without bail amid allegations of collusion between the executive and judicial branches of the Mauritanian government. Despite international calls for his release, Abeid and two of his colleagues were each sentenced to two years in prison on January 15, 2015.

Biram Dah Abeid was released in 2016, but rearrested on August 7, 2018.

After being sentenced to six months already served, Biram Dah Abeid was RELEASED on December 31, 2018.

Updates: 

• Biram Dah Abeid’s Wife and Colleague Raise Awareness in European Institutions Biram Dah Abeid’s wife, Leila Ahmed Khliva, visited Brussels as part of Mauritanian delegation to raise awareness about slavery and racial discrimination in Mauritania, and to ask the EU and the international community to pressure the Mauritanian government for Abeid’s release. (February 12, 2016, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization) 
• Mauritanian Anti-Slavery Activists Finally Released, Anti-slavery activists Biram Dah Abeid and Brahim Bilal Ramdhan have been released from prison after serving 20 months of their two-year sentence. (May 18, 2016, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)
• In the early morning of Tuesday, 7 August 2018, Mauritanian police took internationally recognized anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid into custody. Local police forces had arrested him in his home in Nouakchott. (August 7, 2018, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)
• Biram Dah Abeid was released on December 31, 2018 after receiving a sentence of six months already served. (January 2, 2019, Africanews.en)