1st March 2007 - International Day of Action for Mohammed Abbou, Front Line, Human Rights Defenders
Irish Parliamentarians call for Mohammed Abbou's releaseTwo years of detention for denouncing torture in Tunisia
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PRESIDENT BEN ALI
Président M. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Président de la République Palais Présidentiel Tunis
1 March 2007
Re: Mohammed Abbou, two years of detention for denouncing torture in Tunisia
Your Excellency,
I am writing to express my deep concern for the Tunisian human rights defender Mohammed Abbou, his wife, Samia Abbou and their children. Mohammed Abbou is an eminent human rights defender from Tunisia. He was arbitrarily arrested in Tunis on 1 March 2005, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in April 2005. He was charged for publishing an online article, in which he criticized Tunisian prisons, comparing them to Abu Ghraib. According to family members who have visited him in prison he has been kicked and punched by prison guards and denied medical attention. On 11 March 2006, in response to the harsh treatment and harassment and to his unfair imprisonment, Mohammed Abbou went on hunger strike for several weeks, which led to a serious deterioration in his heath. Mohammed Abbou is the former director of the Association of Young Lawyers and is a member of the independent National Committee for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT).
Mohammed Abbou's detention was carried out in a manner that violated procedural safeguards and Tunisia's obligations under international law. The next day he appeared before a judge on a warrant that was backdated to September 2004. His lawyers were not permitted to see him prior to his appearance before the judge, and police apparently assaulted lawyers who came to the courthouse to seek to defend Mohammed Abbou. In the following weeks, hundreds of Tunisian lawyers joined protests against the imprisonment of their colleague. Lawyers, led by the head of the Bar Association, were forcibly ejected from the judge's chamber when they sought to present their concerns on 16 March 2006.
In the week prior to the trial a second charge was added to the indictment, relating to a complaint that Mohammed Abbou had assaulted another lawyer during an argument in 2002. Mohammed Abbou was not given enough time to prepare a defence to this new charge, and his lawyers were not given the opportunity to examine the evidence against him and to rebut the charges against him. The imposition of this second charge on the basis of an unsubstantiated allegation is a clear violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which upholds the right to a fair trial.
The original prosecution on the basis of his statements about torture in Tunisia is a violation of his right to freedom of expression, guaranteed by Article 19 of the ICCPR and by the U.N. The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which reminds States of their obligations to ensure that human rights defenders have the basic rights and freedoms they require to exercise the right to promote and protect human rights.
In November 2005 the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Mohammed Abbou has been subjected to arbitrary detention in violation of Tunisia's obligations as a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Mohammed Abbou's wife, Samia Abbou, has been very outspoken in leading appeals for her husband's release. She has organised weekly protests outside El Kef prison and organized a daylong hunger strike to protest against the fate of her husband on 26 October. Since the hunger strike a sizable police team has surrounded her home and access to her road is limited strictly to residents. On 2 November 2006, while Samia Abbou was going to visit her husband in Kef prison - located at 170 km from Tunis, where Abbou's family lives -, the police stopped her on three separate occasions. Each time the police initiated an excessively long identity check with the intention of hindering her progress.
Samia Abbou was subjected to a brutal assault on 7 December 2006. She and three other leading Tunisian human rights defenders were attacked and beaten outside El Kef prison by a group of about forty men in civilian clothing. The three human rights defenders were Moncef Marzouki, former president of the National Committee for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT) and the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) Salim Boukhdhir, a well known journalist and Samir ben Amor, founding member of the International Association for the Support of Political Prisoner. According to reports, police stopped the car in which they were travelling on a number of occasions throughout the journey to El Kef and were present outside the prison at the time of the assault.
I call on the Tunisian authorities to:
(1) Immediately and unconditionally release Mohammed Abbou as his detention relates solely to his peaceful human rights activities, and in acordance with Article 9, part 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; which states that: “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law”; (2) Cease harassing his wife Samia Abbou and his children.
I respectfully remind you that the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders recognizes the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders and their right to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw attention to Article 12: ‘(1). Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. (2). The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration’.
Yours sincerely,