His Excellency Zine El-Abdine Ben Ali
President of the Republic of Tunisia

Vienna, 3 May 2000

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly condemns the arrest of family members and supporters in order to intimidate and coerce journalists.

On 26 April, Taoufik Ben Brick decided to call a halt to his 24-day old hunger strike. Later that day, however, police cordoned off his home, preventing visits from foreign journalists, Tunisian supporters and doctors. During a confrontation with the authorities, the following people were beaten and detained: Ali Ben Salem, the Treasurer of the National Council for Civil Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT) Sihem Ben Sadrine, Jallal Zoughlami, the brother of Brick, and al-Taieb No’man, a student. In a callous attack, Ben Salem, aged 70, was abducted by the police and left in woods on the outskirts of Tunis; he is suffering from injuries to his back and legs and is in hospital in considerable pain.

At the same time, the other detainees were taken to the police station. As a result of the police action, Ben Sedrine, a CNLT member, suffered injuries to her shoulder and eye and Zoughlami is suspected of having suffered a broken nose. Zoughlami was later transferred to Tunis civil prison where his access to a legal advisor was denied. He is expected to appear before the court today to face charges of “unauthorised gathering in a public place” and “violence against law-enforcement officials”. Due to these serious events Brick has resumed his hunger strike.

According to an Amnesty International spokesperson, “the fact that the Tunisian government continues to block NGO’s and foreign web sites and that the Tunisian media has remained entirely mute about this whole affair speaks volumes about the state of free expression in the country today”.

The heavy handed behaviour of the Tunisian police towards family and supporters of Brick comes one day after a visiting delegation, made up of French journalists and members of RSF, were assaulted by the police.

Brick, a correspondent for Reporters sans Frontičres (RSF), the French daily La Croix and the Infosud and Syfia news agencies, started his hunger strike in protest at the withholding of his passport and almost two years of constant harassment and persecution. The hunger strike has left Brick in a serious condition; he is severely undernourished, suffering from low blood pressure and visceral lesions which are the visible sign of his refusal to accept sustenance. There is a genuine fear for his long term health. Brick began his hunger strike on 28 March. On 12 April, an examining doctor stated “Taoufik Ben Brick must end his hunger strike. He has already lost 11 kilos, which is far too much”.

The suffering which Brick has undergone during April is the culmination of a prolonged period of persecution which has forced him into this life threatening protest. Over the last eighteen months Brick’s car has been vandalised, his passport confiscated and his wife intimidated.

IPI deplores the arrest and detention of a family member in order to coerce a journalist. The arrest of Brick’s brother is a cynical attempt to intimidate and force him to give up his protest against the cruel and unjust attacks upon his person. IPI strongly believes that the family of a journalist should never be used as a means of manipulating a journalist and invites your excellency to desist from this practice.

Furthermore, IPI reminds your Excellency that according to article 13 (2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his own country”. In addition, article 20 of the aforementioned Declaration states, “every person has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association” and article 19 specifies, “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”.

Therefore, in view of the assaults, harassment and denial of civil liberties which have been carried out by your Government, IPI calls upon your Excellency to do everything possible to resolve this appalling situation. Specifically, IPI calls upon your Excellency to release the brother and supporters of Brick, to bring to justice those law officers who perpetrated the assaults on both the supporters of Brick and the French delegation, to give legal status to CNLT and to allow the free movement and free expression of Taoufik Ben Brick.

We thank you for your attention.

Johann P. Fritz
Director