Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
17 March 2005
press release
RSF has protested the 13 March 2005 arrest of freelance journalist Mohamed Lemine Ould Mahmoudi. Mahmoudi was investigating a case of domestic slavery in Mederdra, southwest Mauritania, when he was picked up by local police.
"Mohamed Lemine Ould Mahmoudi was arrested simply for practicing his profession. He must be freed immediately," said RSF.
Mahmoudi was arrested together with two other individuals who were accompanying him at about 5:00 p.m. (local time), on 13 March. He had been transcribing the story of Jabhallah Mint Mohamed, a young woman employed by wealthy "masters" to tend to their herd of sheep and goats. The woman had received neither salary nor compensation of any form for her services and had been ill-treated by her employers. According to the banned organisation SOS Slaves, Mohamed finally fled the estate on which she had served all her life in early March. The estate is located in the town of Abokak, approximately 20 kilometres from Mederdra. Mohamed is herself the daughter of slaves, illiterate and the mother of two children. After bringing her complaint to the local police, she was escorted back to her "masters" before finally being set up in a neighbouring town with her husband and children.
Mahmoudi was accompanied by Aïchetou Mint El Hadar, a teacher, and Moya Mint Boyah, the wife of Oumar Ould Yali, an opposition Popular Progressive Alliance (l'Alliance populaire progressiste, APP) senator. According to local sources, Mahmoudi and his companions were still in the custody of local police on the afternoon of 14 March. They were allowed to leave the police station only during mealtimes.
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