Mauritanian anti-slavery activists jailed following controversial court cases

Thirteen anti-slavery activists in Mauritania were sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison on Thursday, despite criticism of the case against them by international rights groups.

A court in the capital Nouakchott found the 13 - members of a group fighting the continued use of hereditary slavery in the country - guilty of "use of violence".

Amnesty International, however, said they were falsely accused because of their advocacy work.

The thirteen all claim they were tortured in prison beforee the court case and lawyers for the group denounced Thursday's verdict as "a travesty of justice".

"One by one, the 13 spoke out against the forms of torture they had been subjected to in custody", Brahim Ould Ebetty, the lawyer for the group said.

They were arrested between 30 June and 9 July after a protest by a Nouakchott slum community that was being forcibly relocated as the city prepared for an Arab League summit on 25 July.

Authorities say that ten police officers were injured during confrontation with authorities.

The slum was home to many so-called Haratin - a "slave caste" under a hereditary system of servitude - whose members are forced to work without pay as cattle herders and domestic servants, despite an official ban.