But Mexico's Reforma newspaper has accused him of being a former Argentine intelligence officer who ran a slave labour unit during the country's military dictatorship 20 years ago.

BBC: Mexico boss held on torture charges

Brazil received the largest number of African slaves of any country during the Transatlantic slave trade -- more than 4.9 million.

CNN: Obama, Rousseff hold joint press conference

The Scottish Executive has produced a new Scotland and the Slave Trade booklet that looks at the country's historical ties with the trade and the role Scots played in consigning it to history.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Scotland | Events mark slave trade abolition

North London woman Saeeda Khan was believed to be the first person convicted under that law when a jury found her guilty of trafficking a Tanzanian woman into the country to work as her domestic slave.

BBC: Q and A: Modern slavery in the UK

His Ethiopian counterpart, Meles Zenawi, the prime minister, has meanwhile written to the leaders of 15 countries, accusing Eritrea of holding 30, 000 Ethiopian citizens in 15 slave-labour camps in different parts of the country.

ECONOMIST: Eritrea

Abdel had moved to the Ivory Coast out of fear he would be arrested in Mauritania for being the country's most prominent activist from the slave-owning class to now campaign against slavery.

CNN: Slave master becomes an abolitionist

If we were caught talking with an escaped slave like Moulkheir, we could have been arrested or thrown out of the country without our notebooks and footage.

CNN: Slavery's last stronghold