(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Abdallah Kaâbi, RSF expressed its concern following the vandalising of Taoufik Ben Brik’s wife’s vehicle. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard urged the minister to “put an end to the acts of intimidation against the journalist’s family.” “Once again, the Tunisian authorities have demonstrated their cowardice by […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Abdallah Kaâbi, RSF expressed its concern following the vandalising of Taoufik Ben Brik’s wife’s vehicle. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard urged the minister to “put an end to the acts of intimidation against the journalist’s family.” “Once again, the Tunisian authorities have demonstrated their cowardice by not even hesitating to frighten his wife and children,” he stated. The organisation recalled that this was the third time since 1999 that Taoufik Ben Brik’s wife’s vehicle has been vandalised in such a fashion.
According to information collected by RSF, Taoufik Ben Brik’s wife’s vehicle was vandalised by a plainclothes police officer on 21 November 2001. Just as she was returning to her car after visiting her mother with her two children at the end of the fast, Azza Ben Brik noticed that one of her car’s windows had been shattered and wires had been pulled out from inside the car. The journalist’s wife had earlier noticed a “suspicious-looking” individual alone in the street right where she parked her car, at a time when Tunisians are usually at home because of the Ramadan. “My children were terrorised and asked me who had done this,” Azza Ben Brik told RSF. Taoufik Ben Brik believes the authorities ere trying to send him a clear message. “[The incident] was a way of telling me, ‘we are here.'” The journalist was recently in France to present his most recent publications (“The Informer’s Chronicle” and “Ben Brik at the Palace”, a satirical work in Arabic). In addition, on 11 November, he appeared on the London-based Arab television channel Al Mustakillah, predicting that Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali would leave power before 2004.
This summer, Taoufik Ben Brik’s sister Saïda and her husband were charged with “mutual violence and participating in an altercation”. The accusations, which followed Taoufik Ben Brik’s appearance on Al Mustakillah (where he announced his candidacy for the next presidential election), concerned a 1999 affair for which she had herself filed a complaint. On 17 October, she and her husband were fined 450 Dinars (approx. US$306; 350 Euros).
