Front Line is concerned following reports that human rights lawyer Mr Mohamed Abbou was again prevented from leaving Tunisia on 3 March 2009. He is a member of the Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie – CNLT (National Council for Liberties in Tunisia). Front Line has issued several urgent appeals concerning Mohamed Abbou, most recently on 17 December 2008 following a previous incident in which he was prevented from travelling.

Further Information

On 3 March 2009, at approximately 11 a.m., Mohamed Abbou was prevented from leaving Tunisia by border control police at Tunis-Carthage International Airport. Mohamed Abbou had been invited to the Netherlands and the UK by Amnesty International and was scheduled to meet human rights defenders, lawyers and foreign affairs representatives in the two countries.

By way of explanation for not being allowed to travel, Mohamed Abbou was told that the orders had come from above. This is the sixth consecutive time that Mohamed Abbou has been prevented from leaving Tunisia. He has been arbitrarily prevented from leaving the country since July 2007 when he was conditionally released after serving two and a half years of the prison term he was sentenced to in 2005 for denouncing torture over the internet. It has reportedly been claimed by the authorities that Mohamed Abbou must wait until the three and a half years to which he was originally sentenced has elapsed before he is allowed to travel. However, there was no mention of this condition in the document presented to Mohamed Abbou when he was released from prison, and the term has now elapsed anyway.

Mohamed Abbou's freedom of movement has also been restricted within Tunisia. On 21 February 2009, he was scheduled to attend a conference in Bizerte. However, he was denied access to the motorway which connects Tunis to Bizerte by transport police and held at a police post for two hours.

Front Line believes that the travel restrictions imposed against Mohamed Abbou are directly related to his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights. Front Line is concerned by the ongoing harassment against Mohamed Abbou and other human rights defenders in Tunisia.