Two of Niger's leading anti-slavery activists, Ilguilas Weila and Alassane Biga, remain in prison following their arrest over a week ago for their work against slavery in the country.

On 5 May, they were charged with illegally soliciting funds from an international organisation based in London, meaning Anti-Slavery International. This charge is unfounded and baseless.

"We condemn the Niger Government's treatment of Ilguilas Weila and Alassane Biga and demand their immediate and unconditional release," Anti-Slavery International Director Mary Cunneen said.

Over one week ago, on 28 April, Ilguilas Weila, president of Niger's pioneering anti-slavery organisation Timidria, Alassane Biga, Assistant General Secretary of Timidria's Tillabery office and four other people were arrested and accused of "propagating false information on slavery and attempting to raise funds illegally".

The charge of propagating false information on slavery was dropped and the four men who were arrested with Weila and Biga were released.

The Government's actions against Weila and Biga appear to be a concerted campaign to discredit them and the work of Timidria as a whole.

Timidria is calling on Niger's President and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mamadou Tandja, "to guarantee the respect of fundamental human rights and end the intimidation and arbitrary arrest of its citizens".

Following the April arrests, over 30 local organisations and the international body Global Rights joined Anti-Slavery International's call for the immediate unconditional release of Ilguilas Weila and his fellow activists.

These charges relate to the planned, but failed, attempt to release 7,000 slaves in a ceremony in In Atès, a remote area near the Niger-Malian border in early March 2005. In a ceremony announcing slavery to be a criminal offence, the authorities warned slave masters not to release their slaves officially, stating that if they did, they would be subject to up to 30 years in prison. Timidria and others also reported government intimidation, preventing slaves from attending the ceremony.

At least 43,000 people are in slavery across Niger. They are born into an established slave class and are made to carry out all labour required by their masters without pay, including herding, cleaning, moving their master's tent to ensure he and his family are always in shade. The masters do nothing. Slaves are inherited, given as gifts and babies may be taken away from their mothers once weaned. They are denied all rights and choice.

In May 2004 a new law came into effect making practising slavery punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The Government's move was in response to the publication of the first national survey of slavery, which was jointly carried out by Timidria and Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation. The report established the extent and countrywide existence of slavery, having interviewed over 11,000 people, most of whom were found to be in slavery.