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Police Warn Lawyer Not to Work for Political Prisoner Association

(New York, December 18, 2007) – Tunisian authorities should immediately halt their ongoing harassment of an independent human rights association on the pretext that it lacks legal status, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. It speaks volumes that Tunisian authorities justified their refusal to legalize the AISPP because its name implied that Tunisia had political prisoners.

The letter protested the December 7 police detention of attorney Samir Ben Amor, who is a co-founder and steering committee member of the Tunis-based International Association in Support of Political Prisoners (AISPP). Police released Ben Amor after warning him to cease his activities within the AISPP, an organization that authorities have refused to legally recognize since its creation five years ago. Tunisian law provides prison terms and fines for persons active in “unrecognized” associations.

“It speaks volumes that Tunisian authorities justified their refusal to legalize the AISPP because its name implied that Tunisia had political prisoners,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This effort to silence Samir Ben Amor only underscores the fact that the authorities harass Tunisians who point out that the government holds political prisoners.”