RECENT GOT PRESSURE ON TUNISIAN CIVIL SOCIETY

CONFIDENTIAL SECTION 01 OF 02 TUNIS 001378 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA/MAG (HOPKINS/HARRIS) AND DRL (JOHNSTONE) LONDON AND PARIS FOR NEA WATCHER E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2017 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KDEM KPAO TS SUBJECT: RECENT GOT PRESSURE ON TUNISIAN CIVIL SOCIETY REF: A. TUNIS 939 ¶B. TUNIS 986 ¶C. TUNIS 1283 ¶D. TUNIS 1340 Classified By: CDA Marc Desjardins for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Pressure on civil society activists seems to have increased in the weeks leading up to the 20th anniversary of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's November 7, 1987, assumption of the Presidency. Though generally targeted in one way or another, in recent weeks the President of the Tunisian Journalists' Association has been detained by plainclothes policemen four times and attorneys active in the International Association for Political Prisoners (AISPP) have experienced an increased police presence outside their homes. -------------- Lotfi Hajji -------------- ¶2. (C) Lotfi Hajji is the President of the unregistered Tunisian Journalists Syndicate (SJT) and an al-Jazeera correspondent. Hajji's outspokenness on freedom of expression issues has made him the frequent target of plainclothes policemen (Ref A). For example, while attempting to cover the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) hunger strike (Ref B),Hajji was stopped on four separate occasions by plainclothes policemen from September 20 - September 28. On September 20, he was stopped by plainclothes policemen as he attempted to cover the press conference announcing the PDP hunger strike. He was stopped again on September 22, as he again attempted to visit the hunger strikers. Though he was initially physically prevented from entering the building, when PDP members interceded on his behalf he was allowed to enter (though by this time thirty minutes had elapsed). When Hajji tried to enter the PDP building on September 27, he and a colleague (Slim Boukhdir) were ushered out by a group of plainclothes policemen. (Note: Video of the incident can be seen online at www.dailymotion.com /video/x3302i lotfihajji 27092007tunisie politics. The same thing happened when he attempted to cover the Ambassador's visit to the hunger strikers on September 28. The International Federation of Journalists released a statement condemning the incidents. -------------- Mohamed Abbou -------------- ¶3. (C) Mohamed Abbou is an attorney that was convicted of defaming the judiciary and posing a threat to public order in 2005, then sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Abbou was arrested after he posted two online articles that were critical of President Ben Ali. He was released without conditions on July 24 (Ref B). Though Abbou's release was unconditional, police prevented him from traveling to London for an al-Jazeera interview in August. During an August 24 interview with a local al-Jazeera correspondent, Abbou stated that there is no legal basis for preventing his travel. Abbou's wife, Samia Abbou, called PolOff on October 1 to say that from early September 30 until about 2 AM on October 1 there were roughly a dozen plainclothes police officers in front of their home that banged on their doors and windows, in addition to verbally demeaning Samia in the street when she attempted to speak with them. Mohamed Abbou attributed the harassment to the upcoming elections for the International Association of Political Prisoners (AISPP),an unregistered Tunisian NGO (Ref C). Abbou opined that any attorney known to be affiliated with the organization was likely targeted in an attempt to cancel the elections. Abbou said that instead of meeting, AISPP members now intended to vote by absentee ballot. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶4. (C) The cases of Lotfi Hajji, Mohamed and Samia Abbou, and the Progressive Democratic Party (Ref D) are relatively high profile, and attract their fare share of international attention. Their stories, however, are representative of civil society activists as a whole. Most Tunisian civil society activists have similar stories, though they are not picked up by the international press. For whatever reason, the GOT seems to find the actions of this small cadre of civil society activists threatening, and has responded by preventing them from traveling or meeting, evicting them from TUNIS 00001378 002 OF 002 their offices, threatening their families, denying them local and/or international funding, and occasionally arresting them. While many have reservations about US foreign policy, they still look to the USG for support, and welcome our efforts to promote freedom of expression and association in Tunisia. DESJARDINS