MEETING WITH SAMIA ABBOU

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 001379

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/FO, NEA/PI, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2015
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KPAO KMPI KDEM TS
SUBJECT: MEETING WITH SAMIA ABBOU

REF: TUNIS 1282 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: Ambassador William Hudson for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Abbou supporters continue to seek USG
intervention in the case of jailed lawyer/activist Mohamed
Abbou (ref A). According to his wife, Abbou refused to bring
his case before the Supreme Court because it would be giving
too much legitimacy to what he and his supporters believe is
a farcical judicial system. Mrs. Abbou holds out some hope
that her husband will be released under an amnesty that could
be announced July 25, Tunisian national day, but says her
husband refused a deal which offered him a pardon in exchange
for signing a statement of guilt. Post will continue to
raise this case at senior levels of the GOT. Meanwhile, the
GOT-controlled local press widely publicized measures offered
by President Ben Ali to improve lawyers' working conditions,
in an apparent attempt to co-opt or divide the unified
lawyers association. End Summary.


2. (C) Pol Counselor and HROff met with Samia Abbou, wife of
jailed lawyer/activist Mohamed Abbou, and Faithi Jerbi,
professor/activist on June 22 to get an update after Abbou's
sentence of three and a half years was upheld in appellate
court on June 10 (ref A). Mrs. Abbou said her husband and his
supporters had decided not to take the appeal to the Supreme
Court because it would simply lend legitimacy to the justice
system which Jerbi says is "controlled by police." Both
urged that the U.S. exert stronger public pressure on the GOT
for Abbou's release; Jerbi said the case should be considered
in the context of wider U.S. democratization efforts in the
region. Jerbi mentioned that when the State Department
spokesmen issued a statement on Abbou on May 5, the
transcript was enlarged into a banner and hung on the wall of
the building where lawyers in support of Abbou were holding a
52-day sit-in.


3. (C) Mrs. Abbou and Jerbi claimed there was a small
possibility that Abbou would be released under a general
amnesty that could come around July 25, Tunisia's Republic
Day. Abbou said that if her husband was not pardoned on July
25, they would both begin a hunger strike. (Abbou recently
went on hunger strike to protest a ban on visits by his
lawyers, but he ended it shortly thereafter upon resumption
of visiting privileges.) Mrs. Abbou also claimed a judge had
offered a deal on behalf of the GOT, which would have allowed
Mohamed Abbou's immediate freedom if he signed a statement of
guilt and apology. She was adamant that this deal was not
even considered by her or her husband. Jerbi further alleged
that if Mohamed Abbou signed a letter of apology, the GOT
would publicize it widely, and seek to discredit him in other
ways. Jerbi opined that the GOT underestimated the reaction
to the Abbou case, especially among the lawyer community.


4. (SBU) Meanwhile, all local press on June 23 featured a
front page article featuring a meeting between President Ben
Ali and the Minister of Justice, citing "new presidential
measures in favor of lawyers." The measures listed include
the development of computerized administration of the
Ministry of Justice, space for children and families in the
courtroom, a move to improve insurance and housing benefits
of magistrates and Ministry of Justice employees, the
announcement of the conclusions of a presidential commission
on "the creation of a higher institution of the bar" and a
commission on social security for lawyers, and a vague
initiative to "extend the field of intervention of lawyers to
new areas, and to draft related legal texts".


5. (C) COMMENT: We plan to raise Abbou's plight with Americas
and Asia Director Atallah in the next few days, indicating
our concern that the case, which centers on freedom of
expression, has become a focal point for anti-GOT commentary
during the few months before the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS). In what is a fairly traditional
move to co-opt and infiltrate strong, non-RCD associations,
the GOT widely publicized Ben Ali's offer to improve lawyers'
working conditions, seeking through the same announcement to
weaken public sympathy for the lawyers' cause. But some
lawyers argue that these largely superficial initiatives do
not address the true concern of the lawyers behind Abbou:
that the Tunisian judicial system is politicized and the rule
of law is ignored in favor of heavy government intervention
in individual cases. Thus, they will have little effect on
the newly energized legal community. END COMMENT.
HUDSON