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Tunisia: End Harassment of Political Prisoners and Families

07 Dec 2006 20:58:15 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch

(Brussels, December 8, 2006) – The Tunisian authorities must end their reprisals against political prisoners on hunger strike and their family members, Human Rights Watch said today.

On December 5, police in the city of Sousse questioned Monia Brahim, wife of hunger-striking prisoner Abdelhamid Jelassi, for one hour about her contacts with human rights organizations and activists abroad. Plainclothes agents had also questioned her on November 30 about her overseas contacts, and asked that she furnish their names.

Jelassi, along with Bouraoui Makhlouf, Hédi Ghali, and Mohammed Salah Gsouma, are among the more than 100 men still imprisoned since authorities cracked down on the Islamist Nahdha movement in the early 1990s. These four, along with many others, were convicted in patently unfair mass trials held in military courts in 1992 on charges of plotting to overthrow the state. In recent years, authorities have conditionally released scores of these long-term Nahdha prisoners, while shortening the remaining terms for others. Jelassi, originally sentenced to a life term, is now due for release in 2010, his wife said.

"Abdelhamid Jelassi and all other political prisoners in Tunisia, should be freed, plain and simple," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North African director of Human Rights Watch. "Until then, Tunisian authorities must not compound the injustice by punishing prisoners who exercise one of the few rights available to them – the right to go on hunger strike."

Brahim has appealed for support because she has been prevented from seeing her husband for three weeks, because the authorities allege that he has refused her visits. Authorities transferred him from al-Mahdia to Messadine prison on November 13, after he and three block-mates launched an open-ended hunger strike on November 5 to demand their release. Since her last visit on November 11, Brahim has had no news about her husband's health or conditions in the new prison.

Prison conditions are deliberately harsh for political prisoners, although they have improved somewhat since the mid-1990s. Jelassi, a 46-year-old engineer, has spent years, cumulatively, in solitary confinement. More recently, at al-Mahdia, he and his three blockmates lived in small-group isolation, sharing cells but prevented from having contact with the rest of the prison population.

Authorities also transferred Bouraoui Makhlouf out of al-Mahdia after the four block-mates began their strike. His family has since been able to visit him at Monastir prison.

Political prisoners in Tunisia frequently stage hunger strikes to demand their release or improvement in conditions of detention. In an effort to contain and discourage strikes, authorities have sometimes responded by transferring or isolating striking prisoners and informing their families that the prisoners are refusing the weekly family visits. When the visits resume, the prisoners have told their relatives that they had never refused their visits.

"Instead of trying to intimidate Abdelhamid Jelassi's wife, Tunisian authorities should either allow her to visit him or provide complete and verifiable information about his welfare," Whitson said.

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Last updated:Thu Dec 7 20:59:03 2006