Mr. Hammami is serving a three-year, two-month sentence for activities related to the political party of which he is spokesman, the Tunisian Communist Workers Party (PCOT). The Tunisian government has refused recognition of this party and in recent years jailed many of its members. Mr. Hammami’s co-defendants, Samir Taamallah and Abdeljabbar Maddouri, are among those presently serving sentences.
The persecution of Mr. Hammami has been a cause for ongoing concern in the human rights community. Having observed, alongside U.S. diplomats, his trial in absentia in 1999 and his appeals trial in March 2002, Human Rights Watch can affirm both the basic unfairness of the judicial process as well as the absence of any evidence in the case file implicating Mr. Hammami and his co-defendants in acts, or advocacy, of violence. The three were convicted of charges that included membership in the PCOT, distributing leaflets and spreading “false information” capable of “disturbing the public order,” and inciting people to violate the laws of the country.
We view this case as an important opportunity for the U.S. to act on President Bush’s pledge that its post-September 11 engagement in the Middle East and North Africa will include not only greater security cooperation but also intensified efforts in favor of human rights.
We are concerned that only the former has been in evidence thus far with respect to Tunisia. On July 4, 2002, U.S. Ambassador Rust M. Deming is reported by the Associated Press to have declared, “We have confidence in the Tunisian security services. We have learned a lot from the Tunisian experience in combating terrorism.” The ambassador described bilateral relations as “exemplary” in an interview published around the same time in the Revue Méditerranée. Following your meeting with Foreign Minister Habib BenYahia on April 19, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher praised Tunisia as “a strong supporter of our campaign against terrorism.”
Such declarations, in the absence of any public expressions of concern about human rights, are likely seen by Tunisian authorities as U.S. acquiescence in their use of the struggle against terrorism and extremism as a cover for silencing all critics of the government, be they Islamist, leftist, liberal, human rights activists, or disaffected public servants.
Ambassador Deming has, we understand, privately raised with Tunisian authorities the case of Mr. Hammami, whose wife, human rights lawyer Radhia Nasraoui, has been on a hunger strike since June 26 to demand his release and an end to police harassment of the family. We are also aware that the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices details each year the Tunisian government’s heavy restrictions on the rights to freedom of speech, association, and assembly, and the right to a fair trial.
However, given the danger that Tunisian authorities will misinterpret the praise for bilateral security cooperation as an endorsement of repressive measures, the U.S. needs to press harder for human rights improvements, including the release of Mr. Hammami, his codefendants and all other Tunisians who have been imprisoned for their nonviolent criticism of the government and its policies. This means, in our view, raising this matter at the highest level with Tunisian officials, and, if appropriate, in a public fashion.
I thank you for your consideration and look forward to learning of the measures the U.S. is taking to encourage greater respect for human rights by the government of Tunisia.
Sincerely yours,
Hanny Megally
cc: Assistant Secretary William J. Burns
Assistant Secretary Lorne W. Craner
Ambassador Rust M. Deming
