Amnesty International is calling on the Tunisian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those arrested and tried for exercising peacefully their right to freedom of expression and assembly. Others should be retried in fair proceedings in line with Tunisia’s international obligations.
The organization issued its appeal after yesterday’s prison sentences handed down to 38 trade [...]

Tags: Trade Unions, Tunisia

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End Harassment of Ex-Prisoners and Declare Amnesty
President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia freed several prominent political prisoners on November 5, 2008, and Human Rights Watch urged authorities to release all persons held for nonviolent political activities and to end the harassment of former political prisoners.
Authorities conditionally released all 21 remaining members of the banned [...]

Tags: Tunisia

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Reporters Without Borders has called for the immediate release of Tarek Soussi of the International Association for the Support of Political Prisoners, who was arrested at his home in Bizerte (60 km north of Tunis), on 27 August 2008, after giving a phone interview to pan-Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera on 26 August in [...]

Tags: Tunisia

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A Tunisian journalist has been released from prison eight months after he was arrested.
Slim Boukhdir was released on Monday and informed that he had been granted a conditional release by the Minister of Justice. He was not given any further explanation.
His release is apparently conditional on his “good behaviour”; if convicted of a similar crime [...]

Tags: Tunisia

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A former prisoner and alleged torture victim, whose case was cited in Amnesty International’s recent report on human rights abuses in Tunisia, has been re-arrested.
In what appears to be reprisal by the Tunisian authorities, Ziad Fakraoui was taken from his family home in Tunis on 25 June 2008, two days after the report’s publication.
Two Tunisian [...]

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A harsh and disturbing reality lies behind the image of Tunisia as a holiday paradise and human rights beacon that the government has sought to paint. In truth, it is a country where violations by security forces are rampant and go unpunished.
Saber Ragoubi was tried unfairly and sentenced to death in December 2007, largely on [...]

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Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people, including children, suspected
of terrorism-related offences, have been arrested in Tunisia since the
introduction of the Anti-Terrorism Law in 2003. Authorities use the
broad definition of ‘terrorism’ in this law to criminalize legitimate
and peaceful opposition activities.
Many have been tortured and otherwise ill-treated, held in
incommunicado detention and subjected to enforced disappearances in the
last five [...]

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The Tunisian government is misleading the world as it conveys a positive image of the human rights situation in the country while abuses by its security forces continue unabated and are committed with impunity, Amnesty International revealed in a new report today.
“The Tunisian government has repeatedly asserted that it abides by its international human rights [...]

Tags: Tunisia

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