Mauritania: Arbitrary detention of the former Commissioner for Human Rights

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 13 December 2011 Index: AFR 38/003/2011 Mauritania: Arbitrary detention of the former Commissioner for Human Rights Amnesty International is concerned that the former Mauritanian Commissioner for Human Rights, Mohamed Lemine Ould Dadde, is being held in arbitrary detention and is calling on the authorities to provisionally release him in accordance with curre [...] Given that the legal length of pretrial detention is set at one year under article 138 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Amnesty International believes that his detention since 27 September 2011 is arbitrary. [...] In fact, under Mauritanian law, the courts should have dismissed the case or referred it to a competent court before the legal period for holding the defendant in pretrial detention had expired. [...] The recent decision by the investigating magistrate on 4 December 2011 to refer the case to the Criminal Court takes nothing away from the arbitrary nature of this detention. [...] The delegates also met the Minister of Justice, Abidine Ould ElKheir, and expressed the organization’s concerns regarding this unlawful detention.