After nearly two months in prison, Niger's leading anti-slavery activists, Ilguilas Weila and Alassane Biga were released on bail.

In what was their third bail hearing on Friday 17 June, magistrates agreed to bail, noting they did not pose a threat to public order and would not tamper with any evidence, reversing two earlier decisions.

Ilguilas Weila, president of Timidria, Niger's pioneering anti-slavery organisation and 2004 Anti-Slavery Award winner, and his colleague Alassane Biga were arrested on 28 April. They were charged with illegally soliciting funds from Anti-Slavery International. The charges are unfounded and baseless.

Weila and Biga's arrest relates to the planned but failed attempt to free 7,000 slaves in a ceremony in In Atès, a remote area near the Niger-Malian border, in early March. The activists were initially arrested with four other men, including the mayor of In Atès, accused of propagating false information on slavery. This charge was later dropped and the others were released on 5 May.

Over 30 local organisations and the international human rights organisations Global Rights and Free the Slaves joined Anti-Slavery International's call for the activists' immediate unconditional release. On 19 May, protestors took to the streets in the capital Niamey, in the first rally of its kind, demonstrating against the arrests and calling for an independent and impartial judiciary.

We are continuing to press for the charges against Weila and Biga to be dropped and for the Government to work in co-operation with Timidria to end slavery throughout the country.