Front Line is concerned about the judicial proceedings that have been initiated against the human rights defender and lawyer Abdul Raouf Ayadi. Abdul Raouf Ayadi is a former member of the Council of the Order of Lawyers and former Secretary General of the National Council for Liberty in Tunisia (CNLT).
===Further Information
Posted 03/08/2007 On 12 July 2007, Abdul Raouf Ayadi was accused of physically attacking the Chief of Police at Bâb Bnet police station. The judicial proceedings were lodged subsequent to Abdul Raouf Eyadi having lodged a formal complaint of being physical attacked by a police officer from the same police station on 14 April 2007.
On the morning of 14 April 2007, Abdul Raouf Eyadi was violently kicked by a police officer of the Bâb Bnet police station at the Tribunal of First Instance in Tunis. Adbul Raouf Ayadi had been preparing to defend a group of young men, who had been charged with offences against the anti-terrorist law, before the fourth criminal chamber of the Tribunal of First Instance of Tunis. Police officers then prevented him from entering the chamber where he was due to defend his clients.
Front Line is concerned with regards to a defamation campaign against Abdul Raouf Ayadi, which has been allegedly launched by members of the Special Services of the Ministry of the Interior. On 7 July 2007, one week after he had received an offensive fabricated photograph of his wife and a DVD, Abdul Raouf Ayadi went to a police station on Rue Charles de Gaulle to lodge a complaint. A police officer at the police station was forbidden by a senior police officer to take the complaint.
Since 2000, Abdul Raouf Ayadi has been targeted by police because of his human rights activities. His office has been under permanent surveillance by plainclothes police instructed to intimidate his clients. In June 2006, he was evicted from his office without any legal basis, at the instruction of the Ministry of Justice.
Action Finished:
This Urgent Appeal has now ended. No further action is requested at this point. Thank you for taking action on this case.
Front Line issues Urgent Appeals on behalf of human rights defenders at risk on a daily basis. These Appeals normally remain active on our web site for a period of up to six weeks, depending on the situation. After this time they will be archived. Front Line maintains a watching brief on all these cases but no further action is requested after the six weeks, unless there is a significant development in the case.
