Tunisia: Three international human rights groups join call for release of all prisoners of conscience

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *

28 June 2001
MDE 30/019/2001
111/01

EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01
(GMT) ON 29 JUNE 2001

Joint Statement

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.

Most recently, Sihem Ben Sedrine, a journalist and spokesperson
of the Conseil national des libertJs en Tunisie (CNLT), National
Council for Liberties in Tunisia, was arrested on 26 June 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. She has been jailed, awaiting trial on 5 July.

On 19 June 2001, Mohamed Mouadda, former prisoner of conscience
and former leader of the Mouvement des dJmocrates socialistes
(MDS), Movement of Democratic Socialists, the main legal
opposition party in Tunisia, was 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 had been arrested on 9
October 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 Aunauthorized@ association (namely the CNLT) and
spreading Afalse@ 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 23 June 2001 and continues on 7 July.

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.
Dozens have gone on hunger strike already this year to demand
their release and to protest against torture and their conditions
of detention, including lack of access to medical care. Mohamed
M=seddi, a former Tunis Air pilot serving a 27-year sentence
imposed in 1993 for belonging to a Asubversive movement@, was on
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, HJdi Bejaoui, began a hunger
strike on 8 May in protest at 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 had been shot in
the leg when police arrested him in 1991 and still has a bullet
lodged in his knee.

AThe restrictions on former prisoners of conscience from taking
up work, accessing medical care, moving freely inside Tunisia and
travelling abroad are unacceptable and must be ended
immediately,@ the three international human rights groups said.

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 dJveloppement (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. He had
succeeded in having his passport returned to him on 16 June only
after beginning a hunger strike two days earlier with three
companions whose passports had also been confiscated by the
authorities.

Tunisians who work or study abroad are often arrested when they
return home and then imprisoned on charges of having had contacts
with political opponents abroad. Lotfi Ferhati, a Tunisian living
in France, was arrested in August 2000 when he arrived in Tunisia
with his wife for a family visit. He was held in the Ministry of
the Interior for 18 days, where he was reportedly tortured and
forced to sign an unread statement admitting to links with an
unauthorized Islamist group. He retracted the statement during
his trial. No other evidence or testimony was presented to the
court, yet on 31 January he was sentenced to seven years=
imprisonment.

AWe call on the government of Tunisia to free all prisoners of
conscience from prison or from regimes of harassment,@ the three
organizations said. AAnything else would fall well short of its
international obligations and even its own discourse with respect
to basic human rights.@

ENDS.../

******************************************************************
************
For more information please contact:
- Amnesty International: call its press office in London, UK, on
+44 20 7413 5566 or visit its website at http://www.amnesty.org
- Human Rights Watch: call Hanny Megally in New York, USA, on +1
212 216 1230 or visit its website at http://www.hrw.org
- International Federation of Human Rights: call its office in
Paris, France, on +33 1 43552518 or visit its website at
http://www.fidh.org

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