(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 3 February 2002 RSF press release: RSF outraged over sentencing of Hamma Hammami to nine years’ imprisonment The organisation asks the European Union to cease suppporting the Z. Ben Ali regime Reporters sans frontières (RSF) is outraged over the nine-year and three month prison sentence pronounced on Saturday 2 […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 3 February 2002 RSF press release:
RSF outraged over sentencing of Hamma Hammami to nine years’ imprisonment
The organisation asks the European Union to cease suppporting the Z. Ben Ali regime
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) is outraged over the nine-year and three month prison sentence pronounced on Saturday 2 February against Hamma Hammami, leader of the Tunisian Communist Workers’ Party (PCOT) and publication director of El Badil newspaper, and two of his friends. “The defence’s rights held up to ridicule, the rule of law violated, journalists assaulted and equipment seized: the trial of journalist and communist activist Hamma Hammami and his two friends was a true farce, which testifies yet again to the Tunisian authorities’ contempt for freedoms and human rights. Mr. Ben Ali has offered more proof to the world that judicial independence in Tunisia does not exist,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We ask the European Union to impose sanctions against Tunisia immediately. The European Union has signed a partnership agreement with Tunisia. Article 2 of the agreement specifies that respect for human rights is an essential part of the agreement. It would be scandalous if the European Union, like the French authorities, continued to support Mr. Ben Ali’s police state, which has been applying brutal repression against the opposition for ten years,” added Mr. Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, on 2 February, in the late afternoon, the Tunis First Instance Tribunal confirmed the nine-year prision sentences against Hamma Hammami, Abdeljabar Madouri and Samir Taamallah, for, among other things, “maintaining an illegal organisation”. During the first hearing, in the latter half of the morning, while many international observers were in the courtroom, the three men’s lawyers refused to obey the police’s request that they leave the courtroom. At approximately 1:45 p.m., six plainclothes police officers entered the courtroom and grabbed the three defendants before the assembled crowd. Hamma Hammami’s thirteen year old daughter Oussaima was assaulted as she tried to protect her father. A second hearing was held shortly thereafter in the absence of observers. According to Nadia Hammami, Hamma Hammami’s eldest daughter, who was present, the judge entered the courtroom and left fifteen minutes later without having uttered a word during the hearing. The verdict was finally pronounced during a third hearing.
Moreover, on Friday 1 February, a France 2 crew that had come to cover the trial had a videocassettte seized and its equipment damaged. On Saturday 2 Feburary, a cameraman from Arte was assaulted in front of the tribunal. His videocamera was broken and his videocassette was confiscated. A France 3 cameraman was also manhandled.
After Hamma Hammami, Abdeljabar Madouri and Samir Taamallah came out of hiding, on 14 January their lawyers opposed the 14 July 1999 verdict that saw the three men sentenced in absentia to nine years and three months in prison. The sentence was to be carried out immediately. Since the announcement of the new trial, the police presence around the Tunis Tribunal and the offices of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) had been reinforced. On the evening of 30 January, Mohseni Loumamba, a journalist from the banned monthly Kaws el Karama, was viciously beaten on the head by plainclothes police officers, in the middle of the street. The incident followed a meeting of the newspapers’s editorial staff. On 31 January, a meeting organised to support Hamma Hammami was banned by the security forces.
A press conference will be held on Monday 4 February 2002, at 3:00 p.m., at the offices of Reporters sans frontières. Lawyers and representatives from Tunisian and international human rights organisations will be in attendance.
