(IFEX-TMG) – The following is a joint declaration by members of the IFEX-TMG: Tunisian authorities should immediately take action to save the life of imprisoned journalist Hamadi Jebali, who has been on hunger strike since 9 April to protest the lack of medical care and the inhumane and degrading treatment inflicted on him for nearly […]
(IFEX-TMG) – The following is a joint declaration by members of the IFEX-TMG:
Tunisian authorities should immediately take action to save the life of imprisoned journalist Hamadi Jebali, who has been on hunger strike since 9 April to protest the lack of medical care and the inhumane and degrading treatment inflicted on him for nearly fifteen years.
“We urge President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to help end the tragic plight of this man and hundreds of others like him who never used or advocated the use of violence, but simply exercised their basic right to freedom of association and expression,” said Steve Buckley of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), on behalf of a group of thirteen national, regional and international NGOs committed to the protection and promotion of freedom of expression worldwide. (See below for full list.)
“Many Tunisian political prisoners died during the past fifteen years under torture or of lack of medical attention often following lengthy hunger strikes,” said Buckley, speaking for the NGOs, who are known as the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG). The group is acting under the umbrella of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX).
Jebali’s wife earlier this week called on local and international human rights groups to do everything they could to save the life of her husband, whose state of health seems to have declined since he went on hunger strike in a desperate move to bring attention to his plight. “I don’t know what to do to save the life of my husband. He is dying in front of my eyes. They are killing him bit by bit,” said Wahida Jebali in her moving letter, a copy of which was sent to the IFEX-TMG.
“For a year now, the Tunisian authorities have claimed to be in negotiation with the Red Cross about prison visits to check on the condition of people like Hamadi,” said Ursula Owen of Index on Censorship. “It’s become an easy excuse to block other rights groups from meeting with him and other prisoners of conscience. Tunis needs to break the deadlock and open the cell doors to independent observers.”
A fact-finding mission to Tunisia conducted in January by the IFEX-TMG on the conditions for participation in the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November, reported that Jebali’s imprisonment under inhumane conditions and in violation of Tunisian legislation and international law was among the deepest concerns of local human rights groups.
The IFEX-TMG urged the Tunisian authorities in February to release Jebali and “hundreds of prisoners like him held for their religious and political beliefs and who never advocated or used violence.”
Jebali was arrested in 1991 and sentenced by a military court in Tunis to one year’s imprisonment for defamation. In 1992, while still in prison, he was sentenced by another military court to 16 years in prison for “plotting to change the nature of the state”. International human rights groups and Western diplomats deemed as unfair the trial of Jebali and hundreds of members of the banned Islamist An-Nahda Movement.
IFEX-TMG Members:
ARTICLE 19, UK
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)
Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES), Nepal
Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR)
Index on Censorship, UK
International Publishers’ Association (IPA), Switzerland
Journaliste en Danger (JED), Democratic Republic of Congo
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Namibia
Norwegian PEN
Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC), UK
World Association of Newspapers (WAN), France
World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), USA
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
