|
Rights Groups Want Tunisian Activists Out of Jail
WASHINGTON, July 2 (IslamOnline) - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights joined Tunisian human rights organizations this week in an appeal to the government of Tunisia to release all prisoners of conscience and critics of the authorities.
The restrictions on former prisoners of conscience from taking up work, accessing medical care, moving freely inside Tunisia and traveling abroad are unacceptable and must be ended immediately, the groups said in a common statement post on Human Rights Watch website.
The three organizations said the move must cover all known or suspected government opponents or human rights activists who have been imprisoned, prosecuted or harassed simply for the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of opinion, expression or association.
The repression of government critics has intensified over the past two weeks, with prominent figures being arrested, put on trial or arbitrarily banned from travel, the statement said.
Most recently, Sihem Ben Sedrine, a journalist and spokesperson of the Conseil National des Libertés en Tunisie (CNLT), National Council for Liberties in Tunisia, was arrested on June 26 after flying into Tunis and charged with defaming the judiciary and spreading false information, apparently because of her recent public criticism outside Tunisia of the deteriorating human rights situation, the statement said.
She has been jailed, and is awaiting trial on July5.
On June 19, Mohamed Mouadda, former prisoner of conscience and former leader of the Mouvement des Démocrates Socialistes (MDS), Movement of Democratic Socialists, the main legal opposition party in Tunisia, was also arrested and sent back to jail apparently because of his recent public calls for increased political freedoms.
He had been conditionally released in December 1996, after spending over a year in prison on trumped-up charges of being a Libyan agent.
He was first arrested on October 9, 1995, the very day he went public with a critical letter addressed to President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali complaining about the lack of genuine pluralism.
Moncef Marzouki, a doctor and leading member of the CNLT, also faces a period in jail. Since December 2000, he has had a one-year prison sentence hanging over his head, after being convicted of belonging to an "unauthorized" association (namely the CNLT) and spreading "false" information in connection with statements he made on human rights and the need for government transparency.
He is awaiting the outcome of an appellate court hearing, which began on June 23, 2001 and continues until July 7.
Up to 1,000 political prisoners, most of them prisoners of conscience, remain in prison in Tunisia. They are detained in conditions that amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the groups said.
Dozens have gone on hunger strikes this year to demand their release and to protest against torture and their conditions of detention, including lack of access to medical care, the statement said.
Mohamed M'seddi, a former Tunis Air pilot, serving a 27-year sentence imposed in 1993 for belonging to a "subversive movement," was on a hunger strike in April and May 2001 to appeal for urgent medical treatment for injuries sustained when he was tortured in pre-trial detention.
Hundreds of former prisoners of conscience are routinely prevented from working or resuming a normal life.
They are required, often arbitrarily, to report to the police on a regular basis, ranging from several times a day to several times a week.
One former prisoner of conscience, Hédi Bejaoui, began a hunger strike on May 8 in protest of the restrictive and discriminatory measures imposed on him by the authorities since his release.
Denied a medical card and passport since he was released in September 1999, he has to pay for any medical treatment in Tunisia and cannot go abroad for treatment. He was shot in the leg when police arrested him in 1991 and still has a bullet lodged in his knee.
According to the statement, human rights activists are confronted by routine harassment by security forces, including having their telecommunication lines severed and passports confiscated.
Those who manage to obtain their passports may still be prevented from leaving the country. Sadri Khiari, a leading member of the Rassemblement pour une Alternative Internationale de Développement (RAID) and also a founding member of the CNLT, was told by the authorities on 19 June 2001 at Tunis-Carthage airport, where he had gone to take a flight to Paris, that he was barred from leaving the country because of two outstanding judicial cases against him.
"We call on the government of Tunisia to free all prisoners of conscience from prison or from regimes of harassment," the three organizations said. "Anything less will fall well short of its international obligations and even its own discourse with respect to basic human rights."
|
