RioVida Africa

Global Social Policies

Tunisia accused again of Human Rights offenses in prisons

Prison authorities urged to ensure imprisoned journalist’s safety after he is threatened by fellow inmate

Reporters Without Borders wrote to Tunisia’s director-general of prisons and reeducation, Nabil Kalboussi, on 30 May 2008 expressing its concern for the physical safety of journalist Slim Boukhdir in Sfax prison (230 km south of Tunis), where he is serving a one-year sentence.

Tunisian's at rest after ride through desert

“We are horrified to learn that a fellow inmate armed with a knife was left alone in a cell with Boukhdir on 27 May,” the letter said. “This non-political detainee threatened to stab Boukhdir several times. Guards posted near the cell did not intervene although Boukhdir repeatedly shouted for help. Boukhdir was left for more than an hour with this reputedly dangerous man, who was put in Boukhdir’s cell in order to terrorize him.”

This is just in the wake of French President Sarkozy's visit in Tunisia in April when he was widely criticized for not addressing the growing problem with freedom of speech there. On his April Trip he focused on business.

Tunisian home for the wealthy

“Freedom of expression is still just a dream in Tunisia,” the press freedom organization said. “All the press can do is praise President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s record. Anyone who doesn't follow the edict of the government is in danger of being imprisoned and worse as the May incident clearly shows.

Wedding

Independent journalists and their families are subject to constant harassment, Human rights activists and unionists are exposed to the same treatment.

President since 1987, Ben Ali is regarded by Reporters Without Borders as one of the world’s 34 worst “press freedom predators.” Tunisia was ranked 145th out of 169 countries in the world press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders last October.

President Ben Ali's two decades in office have been marred by a continuing pattern of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and curbs on freedom of expression and association.

"After 20 years, it is high time that the Tunisian President and his government take concrete steps to end these human rights violations and persecution and repression committed in the name of maintaining security and political stability," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. "In particular, urgent reforms are needed to stop unfair trials, torture in custody and attempts by the authorities to silence legitimate dissent."

(Milan, June 3, 2008) – Italy should immediately halt all efforts to expel Essid Sami Ben Khemais to Tunisia, because of its established record of torture, Human Rights Watch said today. At the time of writing on June 3, 2008, Ben Khemais, a Tunisian national facing terrorism charges in Italy, was being held at Fiumicino airport outside Rome and could be put on a plane to Tunis at any time. Ben Khemais has apparently been convicted in Tunisia several times in absentia on terrorism charges and would face at least 10 years in prison were the convictions confirmed.    

European governments increasingly rely on national security removals as a tool in the fight against terrorism. Administrative expulsions generally provide for fewer procedural guarantees than prosecutions. In 2005, Italy adopted a new expedited procedure for national security expulsions that explicitly precludes the right to remain in Italy while appealing an expulsion, even when the individual claims the risk of torture or ill-treatment upon removal.

Since 2006, the European Court of Human Rights has blocked efforts by Italy to expel a number of Tunisians, in addition to Ben Khemais, under this expedited procedure.     International law, including the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibits sending anyone to a country where they face a risk of being tortured or subjected to ill-treatment. This is the principle of nonrefoulement, which is absolute and applies to everyone, regardless of their alleged crimes.

In 2002 Essid Sami Ben Khemais, who was alleged to be the group's leader, was suspected of planning an attack on the US Embassy in Rome.

No explosives were found in the men's possession, but prosecutors said that recordings of telephone conversations indicated a conspiracy to obtain them. The group's leader has apparently admitted to trafficking in false documents, but only for personal profit.

Ben Khemais had already been tried in his absence to 10 to 20 years' imprisonment in Tunisia, where a military court found him guilty of membership of a terrorist organisation operating overseas.

Last year in June, US authorities flew al-Hajji, a 51-year-old father of eight, and Lagha, a 38-year-old from a remote village in southern Tunisia, from Guantanamo to Tunis and handed them over to the Tunisian security forces. The US had held both men in Guantanamo for approximately five years without ever charging either with a crime. Al-Hajji told his lawyer that he spent his first two days back in Tunisia at the Ministry of Interior, where Tunisian security officials slapped him, threatened him with the rape of his wife and daughters, shook him awake every time he started to sleep, and coerced him into signing a paper he could not read because he needs new glasses.

Challenging questions...