Human Rights Watch condemned Tunisia's ongoing repression of the country's human rights defenders.
Earlier this week Tunisia allowed Zoughlami's brother, journalist Taoufiq Ben Brik, to depart for Paris, where he has been hospitalized as a result of the hunger strike he began on April 3. Ben Brik is vowing to continue his hunger strike until Zoughlami is released from prison. On Friday, May 6, Tunisian officials prevented Radhia Nasraoui, a prominent defense lawyer, from departing on a scheduled Paris flight to visit Ben Brik.
"It appears that the zeal of Tunisia's law enforcement establishment has been deliberately misdirected," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "The government should release Jalal Zoughlami from prison immediately and undertake an independent investigation into the beatings at the police station. Those responsible must be brought to justice."
Ben Salem, Ben Sedrine and Zoughlami were detained on April 26, along with Attaieb No'man, a Tunisian student, when police prevented foreign journalists and Tunisian supporters from visiting Ben Brik at his home. According to information Human Rights Watch has received, the four were ordered to lie face down on the floor of a room in the el-Manar police station. A police officer then began kicking and beating them. Zoughlami attempted to prevent the officer from kicking Ben Salem, leading to the charges against Zoghlami for "verbal and physical abuse" of a police officer. Afterwards, when Ben Salem asked to be brought to a hospital, he was instead taken in an unmarked car and left in a deserted, wooded area some twenty kilometers outside of Tunis. He was later taken to a hospital by passers-by.
Ben Brik, Ben Salem and Ben Sedrine are among the leaders of the Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie (CNLT), a human rights monitoring group founded in late 1998 which continues to function despite the Tunisian government's refusal to allow it to register as a non-governmental organization. In March 2000 the CNLT issued a report documenting a wide range of systematic human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement, routine denial of fair trial and other due process rights, along with wholesale suppression of the right to free expression and peaceful association.
The Tunisian authorities have long targeted activists Ben Brik, Ben Salem and Ben Sedrine, along with many other Tunisian lawyers, writers, and human rights activists. They have had their passports confiscated and their telephone lines cut for long periods. The government has placed their homes and offices under blatant police surveillance. They and their families have been harassed with menacing phone calls, attacks on their property, and physical assaults.
Ben Brik began his hunger strike on April 3 to demand the return of his passport, permission to travel, and an end to the harassment directed against his family. On April 10 he was charged with "defaming the authorities"and "disseminating false information" following publication of two articles in Swiss newspapers. The same day police forcibly evacuated and closed the office of Editions Aloés, Ben Sedrine's publishing house, following a gathering of Tunisians and foreigners to discuss press freedom.
This week, apparently in response to public pressures from the French government, authorities provided Ben Brik with a new passport and dropped the charges against him, allowing him to travel. On Wednesday, however, a court sentenced Zoughlami to three months prison on the verbal and physical abuse charges. Ben Brik has vowed to continue his hunger strike until his brother is released.
"We welcome the government's long overdue decision to drop the trumped up charges against Taoufiq Ben Brik," said Megally, "but as Taoufiq himself has insisted, the issue is much broader than the government's persecution of one individual. It's about the ongoing attempts to asphyxiate all semblances of an independent civil society."
