French President Jacques Chirac, on his official visit to Tunisia beginning December 3, should intervene to secure the release of Tunisian political prisoner Lotfi Farhat, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the French leader.
Farhat, a resident of France whose wife and children are French citizens, is serving a seven-year prison sentence handed to him in a blatantly unfair trial before a Tunis military court in 2001. Farhat was charged with belonging to "a terrorist organization acting abroad" and was convicted solely on the basis of a confession that he maintains was extracted through torture.
Farhat is among hundreds of political prisoners in Tunisia who were convicted in unfair trials. Human Rights Watch urged President Chirac to seek his release or to ask for a new and fair trial before a civilian court.
"Because of Farhat's strong connection to France and France's close relations with Tunisia, your intervention in this case will make clear that France does not countenance the flagrant abuses of human rights to which Farhat has fallen victim," the letter stated.
