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IDHAE INFORMATION
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On Tuesday,
24 July 2007, Tunisian dissident, writer and lawyer Mohamed Abbou
was released from prison in Le Kef, Tunisia,
where he had been held since his arrest
in March 2005. Abbou was sentenced
to prison for three-and-a-half
years for exposing
torture in Tunisian prisons on the Internet. In a statement to Al Jazeera , Abbou said, "As a former
prisoner of conscience, I would
like to thank all those in Tunisia and the rest of the world who stood by my side
during the ordeal I have
been through. The Tunisian
authorities offered time
and again to release me from
prison on condition of signing a letter of apology. But I refused to do so." "My release is the result of actions of resistance
to oppression undertaken by Tunisians
capable of saying no to a regime
in violation of basic human rights.
The Tunisian Constitution and international human rights law guarantee the right to criticise the government, as
long as there are human rights abuses and corruption. The lack
of freedom led some young people to use
violence which I strongly
denounce," added
Abbou in his first interview since
his arrest in March 2005.
Abbou's case has largely been a symbol of Tunisia's appalling human rights record and the subject of numerous campaigns and days of action. See also information in French : IDHAE Portrait : Mohamed
Abbou, 41
years old, a lawyer and member of the National Council for Liberties
in Tunisia (Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, CNLT), was
formerly the director of the Association of Young Lawyers. Mohamed
Abbou has been arrested on 1 March 2005 in connection to two articles
published on the internet in which he criticized the Tunisian government and
detained on charges of disseminating false information, libel, enticing
people to break the law and publishing offences for publishing an article on
26 August 2004 denouncing torture in Tunisia following the interest generated
by images of torture practised on Iraqi prisoners in Abbou
Ghraib. Authorities
have detained Abbou, the day after he published an
article on the website Tunisnews criticizing President Ben Ali
for having invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend a global
conference that will take place in Tunis in November. In that article, Abbou noted corruption allegations surrounding family
members of both leaders, a subject considered taboo in Tunisia. Observers
suspect this article triggered Abbou’s arrest, but
he was charged instead for the article he published online on August 2004, comparing
conditions in Tunisian prisons to those in the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib detention facility in Iraq. Authorities at the
same time revived, an old assault complaint against Abbou
in which a fellow lawyer accused Abbou of beating
her. Hundreds
of lawyers and human rights supporters protested Abbou’s
1 March detention. Police broke up the demonstration outside the Palais de Justice, and scores were injured, including Abbou’s wife. After this incident and others in April, he
was transferred to a prison in el-Kef, some 200 kilometres from Tunis and his
family. Human rights defender and lawyer, Radhia Nasraoui, who was on her way to the demonstration meeting
point, was brutally beaten by police officers. As a result of the attack, she
reported having a fractured nose, cuts on her forehead and bruises over
various part of her body. Her daughter, who was with her at the time of the
assault, was also beaten; she fainted and is reported to have bruises on her
body and several stitches on the head. Radhia Nasraoui was apparently specially targeted because of her
outspoken criticism following the arrest of Mohamed Abbou.
During
the night of 28th to 29th April 2005
Mohamed Abbou has been condemned by the 4th
criminal Chamber of the court of first
instance of Tunis to three years and six months of jail for two distinct cases : publication of an article on internet
denouncing the torture in Tunisian
jails and complaint of a lawyer for " violence ". He has also been condemned to two years of
jail for " violence " in the second case relative to a complaint
put down by a Tunisian lawyer, Dalila Mrad, during an
altercation that occurred in June 2002. In a complaint filed at the time, Mrad claimed that injuries he inflicted necessitated
hospital treatment arguing of a physical inability of 10%. The
accused had asked for the postponement of the case. The defence didn't plead,
seeing a " plot " to discredit the lawyer
accused . In a tense climate, defence qualified the trial of " politics for offence of
opinion ". On
June 10 the trial in appeal confirmed the condemnation of a
three-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed on lawyer Mohamed Abbou. Neither he nor his lawyers were allowed to contest
the charges at 10 June appeals court hearing. French
lawyer Guillaume Prigent, who was at the appeal
hearing on behalf of Reporters Without Borders, said afterwards the basic
rights of the defence had not been respected. The hearing lasted only a few
minutes and the judge began by sending the diplomats out because he said they
were "making too much noise." He then expelled the media and
others, including the defendant's wife, leaving only the defence lawyers and
legal observers from foreign NGOs in the courtroom. . Both
Mr Abbou and his wife went on hunger strike for a
few days on 25 July They wanted to draw attention to what happens to people
in their country who voice their dissent. On 21
September 2005 a score of
Tunisian NGOs organized a day of action for the release of
Mohamed Abbou. A
peaceful demonstration directed by nine NGOs from Tunisian civil society was
scheduled for 2 March 2006 in front of the El Kef prison, where Mohamed Abbou, has been on hunger strike since 11 March for
protesting his prison conditions that have worsened since 2 March, when a
gathering in front of Kef prison, where he is detained, took place that was
blocked by the police and the National Guard.During
his family's visit on 30 March, Mohamed Abbou
looked weak and was unable to walk or
stand without being supported. He stopped on April 14th
. On 24 July 2007, Tunisian Mohamed Abbou was
released from prison in
Le Kef, Tunisia, where he had been held
since his arrest in March 2005. Abbou has spent two years, four months and twenty three days in prison. Copyright © 2007 IDHAE. Tous droits réservés.
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