PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY: GOT SEEKS COVER WHEN

S E C R E T TUNIS 000864

SIPDIS

NEA/MAG (NARDI/STEWART); DRL (JOHNSTONE/KLARMAN)
LONDON AND PARIS FOR NEA WATCHER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KDEM KPAO TS
SUBJECT: PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY: GOT SEEKS COVER WHEN
LIMITING FREEDOMS (PART I OF II)

REF: A. TUNIS 826

B. TUNIS 590

C. TUNIS 514

D. TUNIS 408

E. TUNIS 169

F. 07 TUNIS 1294

G. 07 TUNIS 1283

H. 07 TUNIS 1225

I. 07 TUNIS 1044

J. 06 TUNIS 816

Classified By: Ambassador Robert F. Godec for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

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Summary
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1. (C) The Government of Tunisia has a deserved reputation
for silencing its perceived opponents. At the same time, the
GOT has perfected the art of plausible deniability, allowing
it to deflect allegations of harassment. Often, the GOT
works through intermediaries, using a broad range of tools
ranging from the legal system to third party proxies to
box-in and/or harass opposition figures and human rights
activists. The circuitous measures used by the government
makes it difficult -- but no less necessary -- to engage
directly with the GOT on the issues that are at the heart of
the matter: freedom of expression and freedom of
association. End Summary.


2. (C) This is the first in a two-part series on civil
society. Part I catalogues the means the GOT uses to target
activists. Part II examines the tools activists have used to
advance their objectives in the face of GOT harassment.

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Drug Smuggling Libel Spouting Counterfeiters
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3. (C) Though Tunisian law carries harsh penalties for
impugning government institutions or officials, the GOT
rarely pursues these charges against political activists and
opponents. Instead, the GOT prefers to manipulate the
judicial system by using third party actors or manufactured
charges unrelated to activism to discredit its opponents.
This tactic has the benefit of targeting civil society
activists, without opening up the GOT to claims of
harassment. Usually the charges against activists have a
veneer of credibility, but on occasion they appear to be
chosen at random. For example, days after comedian Hedi Oula
Baballah performed a satirical sketch featuring President Ben
Ali, he was charged with counterfeiting (Ref E). Among the
various charges brought against activists during the last
year are libel, failing to present a national ID card,
possession of an illegal narcotic, and insulting a police
officer.

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Justice is Blind
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4. (C) The judicial system is the GOT's weapon of choice
when it comes to persecuting activists. Rather than sue
civil society leaders itself, to deflect blame the GOT finds
other people to sue activists on its behalf. For example,
the month after the opposition Progressive Democratic Party
(PDP) announced its former Secretary General Nejib Chebbi
would run for president in 2009, Chebbi and Editor-in-Chief
of the PDP's Arabic weekly al-Mowqif Rachid Khachana were
sued by five vegetable oil companies for libel (Ref D). Not
long afterwards, a paper factory brought a separate libel
suit against Chebbi. (Note: Tunisian law allows journalists
to be sued for damages, regardless of their story's
veracity.) By the same token, the GOT can put "on hold"
legal actions brought by civil society groups. The
unregistered NGO National Council for Liberty and Labor
(CNLT) sued the government in 2005 over its registration
status, but a hearing date has yet to be set.

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Tax Time
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5. (C) The tax code is another favored tool to intimidate
or punish those who criticize the regime. Several Tunisian
activists have been assessed taxes that far exceed their
assets. It is likely such penalties are punitive, as the
fines often coincide with periods of increased activism on
the part of the individuals in question. For example, at the

same time Chebbi and Khachana were notified they were being
sued for libel, the PDP discovered it was being fined 7,500
TD (US $6,465) because of 600 TD (US $517) in unpaid taxes
from 1986. The PDP claims that this error was manufactured
by the government, and even if legitimate, it would have been
annulled by a general tax amnesty in 2006 (Ref C).
Journalist Omar Mestiri and attorney Raouf Ayadi both say
they have also been assessed tax bills that exceed their
income. Mestiri often authors articles critical of the
government, and Ayadi works pro-bono on many human rights and
opposition cases. If they are unable to pay the fines,
Mestiri and Ayadi could be sentenced to prison.

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The Lights Are On, but Nobody's Home
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6. (C) Government officials tend to avoid documentation
when interacting with NGOs, presumably because the absence of
a paper trail makes it difficult for NGOs to prove that they
are wrongfully denied government services. The CNLT,
International Association for the Support of Political
Prisoners (AISPP),and the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate
(SJT) have all tried multiple times to register their
organizations (Ref F). When they mailed registration
information, the forms vanished en route. When they
attempted to register in person, officials either refused to
accept the documents or refused to issue a receipt as proof
the forms were received. On one occasion, the CNLT tried to
register accompanied by representatives from Human Rights
Watch (HRW),the International Publishers Association, and
the World Press Freedom Committee. A government official
asked them to wait. After a while the delegation attempted
to approach the official again, only to find his office
locked and empty.


7. (C) NGOs and opposition parties often experience
difficulty receiving goods and services from the private
sector, presumably due to government pressure. Days before
the PDP was to hold a conference, a representative from the
hotel where the meetings were to be held called claiming
there had been both a flood and a fire in the room they were
to use, thus it was no longer available. The manager also
said the hotel was undergoing major renovations, of which he
had previously made no mention. The PDP's Secretary General
Maya Jribi drove by the hotel herself, and said that other
than a few cement bags, there was no evidence of significant
construction. She also discovered that the hotel staff had
been given leave for the three days the conference was to
have been held (Ref F).

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Stuck Between a Rock and the GOT
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8. (C) Human rights defenders also complain that the police
do not follow up on the complaints of activists. For
example, the day before attorney Ayachi Hammami was due to
present a report on judicial independence at a conference in
Europe, a suspicious fire broke out in his office, destroying
computers in two separate rooms on which the report was
saved. PolOff visited Hammami's office, and it was clear
that the fire in each room originated at the computers.
Hammami opined that it was likely someone working for the GOT
set the fires to prevent the report from being released, but
that would be difficult to prove since he doubted there would
be an investigation. Indeed, there wasn't: Hammami filed a
report at the police station, but officials did not follow up
on his case.


9. (C) The GOT has also been known to outright deny
evidence. Though the Embassy frequently points out that the
government blocks human rights and video-sharing websites,
the GOT consistently claims it only blocks sites that promote
pornography or violence. The filtering software used by the
GOT is designed to display a "forbidden" error message when
users attempt to access a blocked site, but in Tunisia this
message has been replaced by a "File Not Found" error
message, to disguise the fact that filtering is taking place.
In this manner, the GOT can deny culpability even as it
expands internet censorship (Ref B). For example, as of May
1, 2008, YouTube Russia (ru.youtube.com) was accessible in
Tunisia, but by June 1, 2008 the site was blocked. (Note:
The regular www.youtube.com site has long been blocked, but
savvy web surfers had been able to use the Russian site
instead.) The GOT only unblocked the HRW and Amnesty
International websites after the Ambassador passed a
non-paper to the MFA on the issue.

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Re-defining 360
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10. (C) In some cases, while activists themselves are not
the targets of harassment, their family and friends are.
Neila Hachicha, the daughter of a former senior ruling party
official, founded the opposition Liberal Maghreb Party. The
party never received its registration. After she spoke out
in the United States about the need for political reform in
Tunisia, her husband was sentenced to eight months in prison
for violating zoning regulations, and pornographic photos of
her daughter were anonymously circulated. Before the human
rights NGO Liberty and Equity was to hold elections in June
2008, its founder attorney Mohamed Nouri reported a heavy
police presence outside his home and office. He told PolOff
that security forces were harassing his clients and
preventing them from entering his offices; he also said
plain-clothes security forces had vandalized his car and
assaulted his son. We have heard similar stories from other
activists.

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Comment
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11. (S) The GOT has a well-deserved reputation for
silencing its critics. Sensitive to international criticism,
however, it prefers to do so without getting its hands dirty.
Despite the GOT's efforts to maintain "plausible
deniability" there is little doubt about where the
responsibility lies. The incidents catalogued above are
illustrative examples that, taken together, paint a picture
of how agents of the state have at their disposal a variety
of tools to box-in activists -- the only question is how far
up the chain of command goes. The GOT is quick to label the
problems encountered by civil society groups "private
matters" over which it has no control. This tendency
underscores the importance of engaging GOT decision makers
directly and firmly on the issues that are at the heart of
the matter: government-sponsored harassment of perceived
opponents, and government-imposed limitations on freedom of
expression and association. Otherwise, GOT leaders will
continue to deflect criticism by blaming everyone but
themselves. End Comment.
GODEC