Front Line is deeply concerned by reports that the office of human rights lawyer, Ayachi Hammami, was subject to an arson attack on 31 August 2007. Ayachi Hammami is the Secretary General of the Tunis section Ligue tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l’homme (Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights - LTDH). He is also an executive member of the Collectif 18 octobre pour les droits et les libertés (18 October Collective for Rights and Liberties).

Further information

Posted 04/09/2007 On 31 August 2007, around 8:00am, Ayachi Hammami arrived at his office to find the main door unlocked, which he had locked the night before. After noticing what appeared to be signs of a fire in the secretary's office, he alerted the fire brigade. Despite a swift response from the fire brigade, they were unable to save the client files and the office computers. Following the intervention of the fire brigade team, Ayachi Hammami noticed that the protective cases of all the computer units had been removed, which may have been done to ensure that the data on the hard drives would be completely destroyed by the fire. The Investigating Magistrate and the Public Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance have visited the premises and launched an investigation.

The arson attack took place despite the fact that Ayachi Hammami's office has been under constant police surveillance since he took part in a collective hunger strike in October 2005, on the eve of the Word Summit on Information Society, which led to the creation of the Collectif 18 octobre pour les droits et les libertés. Moreover, Ayachi Hammami's office is close to the building of the Tunisian Central Bank, and therefore located in an area under high surveillance.

The arson attack coincides with the publication of Ayachi Hammami's report on the independence of the Tunisian justice system, entitled “Independence and impartiality of the justice system – the Tunisian case”, which is to presented at a seminar scheduled for the 8-9 September 2007 in Paris by the Euro-Mediterranean Network on Human Rights.