Tunisia: Dr Chourou’s detention conditions tantamount to torture
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| Dr. Chourou in 2008 |
Alkarama once again submitted his case on 9 September 2009 to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, asking it to intervene with the Tunisian authorities. Our organization had already sent a communication to the Working Group on 19 December 2008 due to his re-arrest barely a month after his release.
He was arrested on 3 December 2008 after being released on 5 November 2008, following 18 years imprisonment. On 13 December 2008, he was sentenced to one year in prison for giving an interview on the television channel "Al Hiwar". This sentence was confirmed by the rejection of his appeal in the Court of Appeals of Tunis on 4 April 2009.
The conditions of his present detention in Nador prison (near Bizerte) continue to deteriorate to the point of being subjected to daily humiliations. He is essentially deprived of care and his basic rights.
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| Dr. Chourou in 1991 |
The inhumane prison conditions are tantamount to torture and have particularly severe consequences on his current state of health. Now at 62, he is suffering from various chronic diseases due to long periods of seclusion.
There is no doubt that this treatment is by instruction from political authorities at the prison and is retaliation for him having reported his case to the UN special procedures.
Reminder
Dr. Sadok Chourou was first arrested on 17 February 1991 as chairman of the political movement "Al-Nahdha". Since, he has been held incommunicado for long periods and severely tortured by the authorities of the Ministry of Interior.
He was brought before the military court in Tunis in 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment following what was considered by all Human Rights NGOs as an unfair trial and unanimously regarded as a case of a prisoner of conscience.
He was held under especially difficult detention conditions in an isolated jail cell for 14 years. He has been on more than a dozen hunger strikes, the last having taken place in 2007.
He was released 5 November 2008 after 18 years imprisonment following a pardon granted by the government to 21 "Al Nahdha" members to mark the 21st anniversary of President Zine Ben Ali's accession to power in 1987.
He was re-arrested on 3 December 2008 following several telephone interviews, including one on the Arab television station "Al-Hiwar" on 1 December 2008, during which he discussed issues of civil liberties and politics in his country and the conditions of his detention. (see communiqué)
Tunisia ratified the Convention against Torture on 23 September 1988. For over 10 years the country has not submitted a report to the Committee against Torture, the last dating back to 1998.