French Investigating Judge Transfers Torture Case to Trial Court

On May 28, 2001, the investigating judge at court of first instance (Tribunal de Grande Instance) of Montpellier issued an order to transfer the case of Ely Ould Dha to the Assize Court. Ely Ould Dha, an army officer and Mauritanian national, is accused of torture. Since 1986, the Mauritanian government is said to have launched and co-ordinated several campaigns against the Negro-African population of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Thousands of Negro-African Mauritanians have been tortured or killed since then. The French League of Human Rights and the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues who initiated the case against Ould Dha, have collected witness testimonies stating that Ould Dha tortured people who were imprisoned in Jreïda-prison near the capital of Nouakchott…[more]