WASHINGTON , July 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Dozens of Tunisian political prisoners have been held for years in solitary confinement as part of a deliberate government strategy to crush the political opposition, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report.

Tunisia, the North African country chosen by the Bush administration as the base for its initiative to encourage Arab governments to adopt political reform, is holding more than 500 political prisoners, including as many as 40 who have been held in isolation for up to 13 years in violation of its own national law, as well as international penal standards, the report said according to the OneWorld US website.

The 33-page report, "Tunisia: Long-Term Solitary Confinement of Political Prisoners," found that all of the prisoners in prolonged isolation are Islamists, most of them leaders of a moderate movement, Nahdha, that was banned by the government of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in 1990 after the authorities accused it of plotting to overthrow his regime, the website said.

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