Tunisia: Crackdown on Human Rights Defenders

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI Index: MDE 30/007/2009 07 July 2009 Tunisia: Crackdown on Human Rights Defenders In the lead-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections due to take place in October 2009, Amnesty International is concerned about the increasing incidents of intimidation, harassment and acts of brutality against those expressing views critical of the Tunisian governm [...] Against a backdrop of intensification in the past month of repression against human rights defenders, including lawyers and journalists, by state security officers, Amnesty International stresses that freedoms of expression, association and assembly are the pre-requisites for the free debate which is indispensable in pre-election period and that the poor human rights record of Tunisia should not b [...] Amnesty International is calling on the Tunisian authorities to end the harassment of and attacks on human rights defenders and to allow a free debate on the human rights situation in the country. [...] Since his return to Tunisia after a trip to France and Belgium in June 2009, at the invitation of Amnesty International, where he met with officials and the press to denounce the human rights situation in Tunisia, Mohamed Abbou has been subjected to a smear campaign in the Tunisian press. [...] Another human rights defender, Ammar Amroussia, was assaulted by six state security officers in the city of Gafsa on 15 May 2009, when he met the wife of prisoner of conscience Adnan Hajji (unfairly imprisoned for leading the unrest in the Gafsa region last year).