Tunisia
Tunisian human rights activist released

afrol News, 15 May - Néjib Hosni, a prominent Tunisian lawyer and human rights activist, was released from El-Kef Prison on 12 May 2001. This follows a presidential pardon after nearly five months of imprisonment as a prisoner of conscience. Human rights groups were campaigning for his release.

- Néjib Hosni's imprisonment enraged human rights defenders inside and outside Tunisia, Amnesty International said today. "The international campaign for his release has been a testament to global human rights solidarity."

Since his arrest, Amnesty International has campaigned relentlessly for his immediate and unconditional release. Soon after his release Néjib Hosni spoke to the organization and expressed his gratitude to all those who had campaigned so effectively on his behalf.

Amnesty International today however stated it "remains concerned about the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders in Tunisia, which includes judicial proceedings against leading members of the Ligue tunisienne des droits de l'homme (LTDH) and the Conseil national des libertés en Tunisie (CNLT), as well as physical attacks on the leaders and activists of these and other civil associations." 

The international human rights watchdogs call on the Tunisian authorities to abide by international standards and end their campaign against human rights defenders.

Néjib Hosni, who has received numerous international prizes for his committed work in defence of human rights and is a founder member of the Conseil national des libertés en Tunisie (CNLT), National Council for Liberties in Tunisia, was imprisoned in June 1994 on a trumped-up charge of forgery. After being sentenced, without evidence, to eight years in prison in an unfair trial in 1996, he was conditionally released at the end of the same year after an international campaign of solidarity.

He was re-arrested in December 2000 and sentenced to 15 days in prison for "non-compliance" with a judicial decision which banned him from practising his profession as a lawyer for five years. This ban was arbitrary since it was in breach of current texts regulating the legal profession. They state that the Tunisian Bar Council is the only body authorized to decide whether a lawyer may be suspended or disbarred.

In January 2001, after having served his sentence, Néjib Hosni was kept in detention in accordance with a decision by the Minister of the Interior to repeal the order conditionally releasing him in December 1996. Néjib Hosni is now being forced to complete the remaining five and a half years of the eight-year sentence imposed in the 1996 trial.

Before and after his previous detention, Néjib Hosni, along with his wife and children, were constantly subjected to all forms of harassment and intimidation by the Tunisian authorities, notably the confiscation of his passport, the cutting of their telephone lines, constant surveillance and the threat of new judicial proceedings.

Amnesty International states today it now "expects the Tunisian authorities to allow Néjib Hosni to practice his profession as a lawyer without hindrance or harassment."

Source: Amnesty International

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