4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Rights activist gets jail
A Tunisian court sentenced prominent human rights activist Moncef Marzouki to 12 months in prison on Saturday for belonging to an illegal organisation and disseminating false information.
Marzouki, 55, who is spokesman for the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT), was given eight months in prison for helping to run the organisation, which has operated since 1998 without a licence.
He was sentenced to an additional four months for "spreading false information which could destabilise public order," according to the verdict handed down by the court.
Marzouki has 10 days to appeal the sentence, but his lawyers said that such an action would be futile considering the Tunisian judiciary's lack of independence. Marzouki was tried following his participation in a conference held in October by Tunisia's National Solidarity Fund, which was established to collect money to be used to develop poor rural areas.
Marzouki's team of 40 lawyers was unable to convince the court to consider a document detailing their client's criticisms of the charges. The judge denied Marzouki's request to make a final statement in his defence before the verdict was delivered. In response, the defence team walked out of court claiming that their rights and those of their client had been violated.
In statements to the press, Marzouki reiterated his links with the CNLT, an organisation which he said was "legal in terms of the Tunisian constitution and international law." He said he was being judged for exercising his rights and denounced the involvement of the judiciary in dealing with political issues.
Marzouki, the former head of the Tunisian Human Rights League, had already been sacked from his post as professor of medicine in the central Tunisian town of Sousse and forbidden to travel abroad.
The Cairo-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR), US-based Human Rights Watch and London-based Amnesty International have all issued statements condemning Marzouki's prison sentence and calling for his immediate release.
The AOHR praised Marzouki and his record in defending human rights. A statement by Human Rights Watch called on Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, to "carry out his recent pledge to respect international human rights standards." It also asked the president "to stop his government's use of physical violence, unwarranted criminal prosecution, and punitive administrative measures to silence its critics."
Human Rights Watch added that Marzouki's dismissal from his job as teacher at Sousse University was based on "highly arbitrary administrative procedures."
On 15 December, plainclothes police officers physically assaulted another professor at the same university when he tried with several companions to present a petition to authorities protesting Marzouki's dismissal.
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