To All Living Things
Last Week's Column

Amnesty Action:
Torture and Fear of Ill-Treatment
of Prisoner of Conscience in Tunisia
Kathy Gay

his week’s action from Amnesty International concerns a university student imprisoned in Tunisia who has been adopted by Amnesty as a prisoner of conscience for the second time.

During his first detention from November 1995 to April 1996, he was held for over two weeks in incommunicado detention in the Ministry of the Interior and severely tortured. Most recently, he was arrested in early March 1997 while attending a hearing on an earlier case where he had been sentenced to one year and five months’ imprisonment for membership in the Union de la Jeunesse Communiste (UJC), Young Communists’ Union, and for participating in unauthorized meetings. A few weeks after his arrest in March, he was tried on charges of disturbing the public order and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.

His lawyers recently reported to Amnesty International that they saw visible signs of torture on his body -- bruises on his knees and legs, as well as a large thick lump on his right arm -- during a visit with him two weeks ago. In addition, they stated that his health has deteriorated as a result of the poor conditions of his detention. This visit by his lawyers was the first time in a month that they were permitted by prison authorities to meet with him. However, when they tried to visit again two days later, they were prevented from doing so. His family has not been allowed to see him since late April.

Amnesty International is extremely concerned that this young man has been detained and tortured and is calling for his immediate and unconditional release. The organization is also concerned that his trial in April was not conducted in accordance with international standards of fairness. A request by the defense lawyers to cross-examine their only witness, a prison guard, was turned down by the court. And in spite of repeated requests to the court, the defense attorneys were never provided with copies of statements made by the prison guard and the Director-General of Prisons Administration, both of which were mentioned in the charge sheet.

Background Information

Arrests of individuals known or suspected of supporting or sympathizing with unauthorized political opposition groups or of criticizing the government are commonplace in Tunisia. The vast majority of those detained are prisoners of conscience who have neither used nor advocated violence. Detainees are routinely subjected to torture and ill-treatment, especially in the days following arrest when they are held incommunicado in secret detention, often in the Ministry of the Interior itself.

Complaints of torture and ill-treatment are systematically ignored. Within the past six years not even one case of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated, and none of those responsible is known to have been brought to justice. Amnesty International has continued to document and condemn such human rights violations and has repeatedly appealed to Tunisian authorities to take concrete steps to abolish such practices. So far, despite the government’s rhetoric about its commitment to respecting human rights, no tangible course of action has been undertaken to address these concerns.

How you can help

Please send a letter to Tunisia’s Minister of Justice as soon as possible, but no later than July 15, 1997. You may use the sample letter linked below or use it as a model to write your own letter. If you choose to use the sample letter, please cut off or delete all website information at the very top of the letter. If you choose to write your own letter, make sure that it is politely worded and non-partisan (i.e., not used as a vehicle for political expression). Care must be taken to ensure that nothing is written that will cause harm to this young man. Be sure to include both your name and address, as well as the date, on your letter.

U.S. airmail postage to Tunisia is 60 cents.

Questions?

If you have any questions, just post a message to me (Kathy Gay) on the Pub, and I will respond as soon as I can. I greatly appreciate your interest and support.

To see the sample letter for this action, click here.

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Kathy Gay is a vegan, and has been a member of Amnesty International for nearly 10 years, where she has worked on numerous campaigns. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a business analyst for a leading California bank.

Kathy's column, To All Living Things, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.