Tunisia should release Salem Zirda, a former refugee who faces a military court trial on Tuesday for political activities while abroad, or give him a fair trial in a civilian court if there is credible evidence that he engaged in illegal activity, Human Rights Watch said today.
“Tunisia has imprisoned dozens of its citizens for having participated in legal dissident activities when they were in Europe or North America,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. “If the Tunisian government can’t try Salem Zirda in a civilian court for a recognizably illegal activity, he should be released.”
On Tuesday, June 29, Zirda goes on trial before the military court of Tunis on the charge of “providing services to … a terrorist organization operating abroad,” a crime under Article 123 of the Code of Military Justice. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. He has been in custody in Tunisia since being returned there by U.S. authorities on May 13, 2002.
According to Zirda’s lawyer, Samir Ben Amor, the only item in Zirda’s court file is a statement Zirda gave to the police stating that while living abroad he had contact with members of the Nahdha party. In addition, the statement says that the party’s leader-in-exile, Rachid Ghannouchi, submitted a letter in support of Zirda’s successful application for asylum in Germany. But there is nothing in the file to suggest that Zirda planned or engaged in violent activity.
An-Nahdha is an Islamist party that the Tunisian government banned and repressed in the early 1990s, after tolerating it during the first years in office of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. In the past 13 years, as it has been driven underground and into exile, the Nahdha party has not been linked to any acts of terrorism.
Dozens of Tunisians residing in Europe and Canada have been arrested over the past decade while on visits to Tunisia, and then tried and imprisoned for political activities they allegedly conducted while abroad.
The case of Salem Zirda is slightly different. Born in Tunisia in 1970, Zirda fled the country in the early 1990s. In March 1992, while a major crackdown on Nahdha was under way, a court of first instance in al-Mahdia convicted Zirda in absentia and sentenced him to several years in prison for various political offenses: membership in an unrecognized organization, arranging unauthorized meetings, participating in “hostile” demonstrations and distributing fliers. The court did not convict him of any violent activities.
Mr. Zirda reached Germany in 1994 and applied for asylum there, on the grounds that as a Nahdha member he would face persecution if sent back to Tunisia. Germany granted Mr. Zirda a residence permit and travel documents as a refugee.
In 2000, Mr. Zirda left Germany voluntarily. On October 19 of that year, he was apprehended while entering the United States from Mexico and given a short prison term for illegal entry into the United States. After serving his sentence, Mr. Zirda was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He asked to be returned to Germany, but Germany declined to accept his return on the grounds that his residence permit had expired since he had left that country. Mr. Zirda then applied for political asylum in the United States.
Human Rights Watch was told by an INS attorney in Texas who handled the Zirda case that the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated Zirda in 2000 and found that he was not involved in any “special-interest activity,” a term the U.S. government has used in cases linked to terrorism-related investigations. Another indication that U.S. authorities did not consider Mr. Zirda to be linked to terrorist activities is the fact that on August 16, 2001, an immigration judge granted Mr. Zirda’s request to be released from detention pending his asylum hearing, setting his bond at only $17,000.
However, before Zirda could post the sum, the attacks of September 11 took place. The U.S. immigration court then revoked his bond, a measure that was taken in many cases of men of Middle Eastern origin who were in INS custody at the time.
Zirda remained in U.S. custody until 2002, when he apparently abandoned his asylum application. According to the INS attorney, Mr. Zirda consented to be sent back to Tunisia. If true, Mr. Zirda’s reasons for agreeing to be sent to Tunisia, at a time when he was in U.S. custody with little prospect of release, are unknown to Human Rights Watch.
Mr. Zirda is now in the 9th of April Prison in Tunis, awaiting the start of his trial on Tuesday. Human Rights Watch has grave concerns that Mr. Zirda’s trial will not conform to international standards for a fair trial. He is a civilian facing trial in a military court, and the judgments of military courts are not subject to appeal. From the evidence at Human Rights Watch’s disposal, it appears he is being prosecuted solely for his nonviolent association with the Nahdha party.
“If there is evidence Zirda engaged in violent or criminal activity, authorities should introduce it in a fair and open trial before a civilian court,” said Whitson.
Human Rights Watch today sent letters to the German and U.S. ambassadors to Tunisia, noting Zirda’s refugee status in Germany and asylum application in United States, and urged them to send diplomatic observers to Zirda’s trial.
