Amnesty International Report 1994 - Tunisia

Hundreds of people suspected of sympathizing with illegal Islamist or left-wing opposition groups were arrested during the year. They included scores of prisoners of conscience. Other prisoners of conscience were among over 2,000 political prisoners serving sentences imposed after unfair trials in 1993 or previous years. Hundreds more people, many of them women, were detained or ill-treated apparently because of their relationship to suspected members of illegal parties. Released detainees and others had their movements restricted. Detainees were frequently held incommunicado for illegally prolonged periods: their arrest dates were falsified to conceal this. Torture and ill-treatment in the Ministry of Interior, police stations and other secret detention centres were widespread. Reports of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners were received from many prisons. In April Tunisia made a declaration under Article 41 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), allowing communications from states concerning violations of that treaty, although it has not yet ratified either the (First) Optional Protocol (allowing communications from individuals concerning violations of the ICCPR) nor the Second Optional Protocol, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. An Ombudsman was appointed to receive individual complaints about actions by any public body. However, neither he nor other human rights advisers in various ministries prevented or investigated serious human rights violations. They failed to provide details on the whereabouts and legal status of detainees held in illegally prolonged incommunicado detention and did not investigate cases of falsification of arrest dates and allegations of torture or ill-treatment. Amendments to the legal code passed in November gave a broad definition of "terrorist" offences, including "inciting racial or religious hatred". The amendments made it possible to prosecute people for offences defined as "terrorist" committed in other countries, even if they are not recognisable crimes under that country's law. The period of preventive detention was reduced to a maximum of nine months for misdemeanours and 14 months for criminal offences. There was new government action against human rights activists following the government's dissolution in 1992 of the Ligue tunisienne des droits de l'homme (LTDH), Tunisian Human Rights League (see Amnesty International Report 1993). In February, 18 human rights activists were arrested for setting up a national committee to defend prisoners of conscience. The committee's coordinator, Salah Hamzaoui, was held for two weeks; the others were released after a few hours. They were charged with forming an unauthorized organization, distributing leaflets and spreading false information. No trial had been held by the end of the year. The dissolution of the LTDH was quashed by a decision of the administrative court, but the league carried out no public activities during the year. Hundreds of suspected sympathizers of the unauthorized Islamist organization al-Nahda, and scores of supporters of the Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie (PCOT), Tunisian Communist Workers' Party, were arrested during the year. Many were held incommunicado (garde à vue) in pre-trial detention far beyond the 10-day legal limit. Arrest dates were consistently falsified to conceal this fact. Some of those arrested were released uncharged, but hundreds were sentenced to terms of imprisonment after unfair trials. Some were prisoners of conscience. Some detainees were reportedly held secretly in private houses immediately after their arrest. In July and August dozens of suspected government opponents, including Tunisians resident abroad who had returned for their summer holidays, were arrested and kept in garde à vue detention for up to two months: many alleged they were tortured. They included Samir Moussa, who was arrested at Tunis airport in July and detained incommunicado until September when he was released uncharged. Salaheddine Zikikout, a student in France since 1988, was arrested on arrival at the port in Tunis, the capital, in early August and held incommunicado until late September, although his arrest date was falsified and recorded as 19 September. He was reportedly tortured. Tawfik Rajhi, an academic resident in France since 1982, was arrested in July four days after his return to Tunisia for a visit. He was held incommunicado for 23 days and his arrest date was falsified. He was allegedly ill-treated and forced to sign a police statement which he had not read, and was then sentenced in August to two years' imprisonment and two years' contrôle administratif, administrative control (see below), on charges of membership of al-Nahda (subsequently reduced on appeal to eight months' imprisonment). He was convicted solely on the basis of his confession. The court judgment failed to record either his prolonged incommunicado detention or his rejection of his confession. He was a prisoner of conscience. Scores of prisoners of conscience sentenced in previous years remained in prison throughout the year. Seven were granted amnesties in January, including two pregnant women who had been ill-treated after their arrest in November 1992. Another, Moncef Ben Salem, a university professor, was released from prison in May after the completion of his sentence (see Amnesty International Report 1991) but restricted in his movements and denied a passport. People who visited his home were questioned by the police. Some relatives of suspected government opponents were detained apparently to induce those being sought to give themselves up. For example, a teenage girl from Tajerouine was arrested in March in place of her sister who had been sentenced in absentia to eight months' imprisonment for membership of al-Nahda and for holding unauthorized meetings. The family was told that the teenager would be released when her sister surrendered. The sister did so the following day and was detained, whereupon the teenager was held incommunicado for a further four days and questioned about her sister's activities. Critics and suspected opponents of the government were increasingly placed under administrative control when released from prison, even when it was not part of their court-imposed sentence. Those affected were required to report to a local police station regularly, sometimes as often as twice a day. Trials of suspected government opponents violated international standards for fair trial. In several cases, defence lawyers complained that detainees had signed confessions after being tortured during illegally prolonged incommunicado pre-trial detention but such allegations were ignored by the courts, which failed to order investigations and accepted contested confessions as evidence of guilt. Hundreds were convicted under laws which restrict freedom of assembly, expression and association for allegedly belonging to an illegal organization, distributing leaflets, participating in unauthorized meetings, collecting funds for unauthorized organizations and other offences. Some were sentenced to prison terms solely for giving small sums of money for distressed families of political detainees. Thirteen women students and teachers from Tajerouine were among the prisoners of conscience sentenced after unfair trials. They were tried in El Kef in February, convicted and sentenced to between six and eight months' imprisonment on charges which included distributing leaflets (although no leaflet was produced as evidence during the trial). Five of them were reportedly tortured and sexually harassed while in pre-trial detention. In January, four men were sentenced to seven months' imprisonment for membership of an unauthorized organization and collecting funds: the money had been given to the sick mother of a detainee. Naoufel Ziadi, General Secretary of the Union générale des étudiants tunisiens, General Union of Tunisian Students, and an outspoken critic of the government, was arrested in May after he had been sentenced in absentia to two years' imprisonment on drugs charges. The charges were based on accusations made by another detainee during interrogation and appeared to refer to another person with the same name. The conviction and sentence were upheld in June, even though the other detainee withdrew his accusation and there was no other evidence against Naoufel Ziadi. He was released on bail pending appeal. Torture and ill-treatment of detainees remained common both in the Ministry of the Interior and at police stations. The methods used included beatings, especially on the soles of the feet, sometimes when the victim was suspended by the ankles; suspension for long periods in contorted positions, often accompanied by beatings; semi-suffocation with cloths drenched in dirty water or bleach; sexual abuse with sticks and other objects; and electric shocks. Women detainees, particularly those arrested in connection with al-Nahda or the PCOT, were sexually abused and threatened with rape. One woman student who was held incommunicado for seven days at El Kef police station in February alleged that she was stripped and beaten by guards. At her trial, however, the court ignored a request by her lawyer that she be medically examined and she was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment for membership of the PCOT and illegal collection of funds. Mounir Jaouadi, an al-Nahda supporter who was forcibly returned in January from Algeria, where he was seeking asylum, was detained incommunicado for two months in the Ministry of the Interior. He was beaten and severely tortured, and only allowed access to his family in March. When they saw him, his relatives barely recognized him: his face was bruised and he could hardly walk. Nine other Tunisians forcibly returned from Algeria in January and July were also allegedly tortured in incommunicado detention (see Algeria entry). No further steps were known to have been taken to investigate eight deaths in custody in 1991 and 1992, despite compelling evidence of torture. The authorities refused to reopen investigations into the deaths of Rachid Chammakhi and others in 1991, and no details emerged of the investigation which the authorities had said would be reopened into the death in custody of Faisal Barakat in October 1991 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). There were frequent reports of ill-treatment of prison inmates, including beatings, food deprivation, and detention in isolation cells. Some prisoners, including suspected members of al-Nahda jailed in 1992, were reportedly taken from prison to the Ministry of the Interior and tortured. Some political prisoners were also reportedly raped and beaten by criminal prisoners who were held in the same cells but their complaints were consistently ignored by prison staff. Political prisoners were often reportedly denied medical treatment for injuries sustained as a result of torture in pre-trial detention or other ailments. Thameur Jaoua, who was arrested while in hospital recovering from a back operation in January, was severely beaten during 18 days in incommunicado detention and was apparently coughing blood in February. He was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment in March for alleged membership of an illegal organization. His family was not allowed to take him medicine at Sfax Prison and no doctor visited him until April. In April the Public Prosecutor ordered an inquiry into his lack of medical care but its outcome had not been made public by year-end. Despite repeated requests, the authorities provided no information about Kamal Matmati, who had "disappeared" after being arrested in Gabès in October 1991. He was believed to have required hospital treatment after being beaten in custody, and to have died in detention two weeks later, but this could not be confirmed. Amnesty International continued to call for the release of all prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial or release of other political prisoners, and for thorough and impartial investigation of all allegations of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners. It continued to call also for full investigation of the deaths in custody which had occurred in 1991 and 1992. In June Amnesty International published a report, Tunisia: Women victims of harassment, torture and imprisonment, and called on the government to bring an end to the harassment and torture of wives and families of detainees. In an oral statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights in February, Amnesty International included reference to its concerns about arbitrary detentions in Tunisia.