The “Peace Award 2008”Laureate and another human rights activist violently assaulted by the Tunisian police
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) firmly condemns the assault and the ill treatments imposed on Ms Sihem Bensedrine (spokesman of the Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisia (CNLT) –member of EMHRN – and Secretary-General of the Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisia (OLPEC)) and Mr. Omar Mestiri (director of Kalima and member of the EMHRN Working Group on Freedom of Association) Monday 3 March 2008.
Ms Sihem Bensedrine and Mr. Omar Mestiri were arrested at the Tunis customs as they returned from a journey in Europe. Their luggage, personal books and documents were rigorously searched and state security officers obliged them to present the contents of their laptops. Following their refusal in the absence of an official search warrant, the customs officers asked Ms Bensedrine and Mr. Mestiri to follow them into a back office under the pretext of administrative formalities. Once inside, they were sequestered and severely assaulted by policemen, who impounded their computers and mobile phones after having tackled them to the ground. Shortly afterwards, they were forced to endure a body search with renewed violence which seriously breached their physical integrity and their intimacy.
After having been detained during six hours, Ms Bensedrine and Mr. Mestiri were authorized to leave the zone of customs. However, the content of their laptops and diskettes have been copied to an external hard disk and about sixty numerical documents have been seized without any official document being handed out to them as prescribed by law. Ms Sihem Bensedrine has several hematomas on her body and suffers from ligaments’ lesions to the left wrist and the elbow.
The EMHRN expresses their serious concern on the fact that this aggression follows upon the “Peace Award 2008” awarded to Ms Sihem Bensedrine by the Danish Peace Foundation on 7 February 2008 and that some roughs of the CNLT documentary « Breaking the torture machine » denouncing torture in Tunisia have been seized. These attacks touch the very core of their role and their fight in favor of the respect of human rights.
The EMHRN reiterates its solidarity with Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiri as well as with other human rights defenders in Tunisia and call Tunisian authorities to:
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put an end to attacks on human rights defenders in accordance with the provisions of UN General Assembly Declaration on Human Rights Defenders of 9 December 1998 and international human rights treaties ratified by Tunisia;
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initiate without any delay an independent investigation into these serious human rights abuses, which results must be made public and lead to the condemnation of their authors.
The EMHRN calls also to the European authorities to:
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ensure the respect of international commitments related to human rights, as expressed in the Barcelona Declaration to which Tunisia is a part;
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ensure the respect of Article 2 of the EU-Tunisia Association Agreement as well as EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.
05/03/2008
