(OLPEC/IFEX) – The following is an abridged translation of a 7 May 2006 OLPEC alert: Mohammed Abbou and his family have continued to face harassment after the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) – IFEX mission visit on 20 April 2006. On 6 May, an individual, recognised by Mohammed Abbou’s wife Samia Abbou, to be an agent […]
(OLPEC/IFEX) – The following is an abridged translation of a 7 May 2006 OLPEC alert:
Mohammed Abbou and his family have continued to face harassment after the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) – IFEX mission visit on 20 April 2006.
On 6 May, an individual, recognised by Mohammed Abbou’s wife Samia Abbou, to be an agent of the political police, gained access to the family’s balcony between midnight and 1 a.m. (local time). It is the third time this week that this “night visitor” has spread panic in the Abbou family.
As well, police officers often harass Mrs. Abbou and the lawyers who accompany her for weekly visits with her husband at Kef prison. In order to discourage the lawyers, police hand out traffic tickets that could lead to the revoking of their drivers’ licences, while they are en route to the prison. This occurred this week with Mr. Samir Dilou and last week with Mr. Samir Ben Amor. The authorities also often isolate Samia Abbou on the roadway. By contrast, when she was accompanied by the TMG-IFEX mission, she was escorted under normal conditions, however, the following week, the aggravating measures resumed in full force.
Guards interrupted her last visit with her husband on 4 May, ordering her not to publicly disclose information related to him and then pulled an alarm so the curtain closed, separating the two visiting booths, before the legal time for their visit was up.
Mohammed Abbou continues to be subjected to harassment by his co-detainees who have uttered threats against him in the presence of guards who do not react, according to his wife. For the last two months, Mr. Abbou has slept on a box spring, without a mattress, in a sign of protest against his conditions and in demand for a change in his prison cell.
The prison administration has denied his right to medical treatment and his right to see a judge to file his grievances.
Mohammed Abbou was sentenced in June 2005, following an unfair trial, to three and a half years in prison for exercising his right to freedom of expression. He was charged principally for publishing an online newspaper, in which he criticized Tunisian prisons, comparing them to Abu Ghraib. Additionally, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) became aware of this case through the CNLT (Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie) and the LTDH (Ligue Tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l’homme) and issued a report in November 2005 concluding that this case was a violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
