Mohamed Abbou detained on charges of disseminating false information

On the 1st of March, Mohammed Abbou, lawyer and member of the Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie (CNLT) was detained on charges of disseminating false information, libel, enticing people to break the law and publishing offences. The charges related to an August 2004 article denouncing torture in Tunisia, however, it is widely believed that his arrest was linked to a recent article he had written on Ariel Sharon's proposed visit to Tunisia.

On the 2nd of March lawyers who gathered at the Palais de Justice in Tunis to protest against Mohammed Abbou's arrest were physically assaulted by plain-clothed police officers. Those attacked included Mohammed Abbou's wife. The brutal beating of Radhia Nasraoui on the 4th of March was reportedly linked to her outspoken criticism following the arrest of Mohammed Abbou.

These incidents are part of an ongoing campaign of repression against human rights defenders by the Tunisian authorities. Their actions mock the decision of the United Nations to hold the second part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia. The Tunisian Government has repeatedly demonstrated a total disregard for human rights and freedom of expression which were reiterated as fundamental elements to the building of an information society in the Declaration of Principles adopted at the end of the first part of the WSIS in Geneva in December 2003.
Most of Tunisia’s 1,400 lawyers went on strike on March 9th, to protest what they say was police brutality against lawyers in a court of justice, lawyers said. “An overwhelming majority of the lawyers walked out of the court in bunches in Tunis for the strike, except a small number of lawyers who are staunch government backers,” lawyer Nejib Chebbi told Reuters.
The North African country’s bar association called for the one-day walkout to protest against what it called violence and mistreatment of lawyers by the police. “Only one lawyer out of about 600 did not follow the strike in Sfax,” lawyer Abdelwahab Maatar told Reuters by telephone from the main Tunisian southern city, which lies 240 km from Tunis.
Lawyers said about 200 police stormed Tunis’ main court last week to forcibly remove some 50 lawyers defending a colleague arrested for criticizing the government over an invitation to host Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The country’s leading opposition parties vowed to stop Sharon from becoming the first Israeli leader to visit Tunisia in 57 years for a UN-backed World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November.
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange, which campaigns for press freedom, said in a report last month that Tunisia was not a suitable summit host because it had censored newspapers, blocked Internet sites, imprisoned people for their opinions or media activities and used torture.
The government dismissed the report as “biased and inaccurate”, insisting that Internet access was unhindered and that torture is forbidden. Lawyers and the country’s only independent human rights body, the Tunisian Human Rights League, said police arrested lawyer and rights activist Abbou Mohamed on March 1. Abbou’s colleagues accuse the police of beating up some 50 lawyers the next day when they rallied to defend him at his appearance before an investigating judge.
The League and lawyers stress that Abbou, who has since been detained in Tunis’ main prison pending further investigation, was arrested for writing and publishing on the Internet two articles criticizing the government for inviting Sharon.

Date: March 2005

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) /IFEX: Reporters without borders

Urgency: Threat

(CPJ/IFEX)