Imprisoned lawyer's wife and three companions harassed by police and attacked by youths to prevent prison visit

Reporters Without Borders condemned the use of police roadblocks and physical attacks by groups of youths today to prevent Samia Abbou and three companions - opposition politician Moncef Marzouki, journalist Slim Boukhdir and lawyer Samir Ben Amar - from visiting her husband, leading dissident lawyer and human rights activist Mohammed Abbou in Kef prison. “The Tunisian police resort to any means possible to try to isolate Mohammed Abbou,” the press freedom organisation said. “We condemn this completely arbitrary police harassment and we demand that it be stopped at once,” the organisation added, reiterating its call for his release. After leaving Tunis this morning with her three companions with the intention of making her weekly visit to Kef prison, 170 km south of Tunis, Samia Abbou was stopped at three successive police roadblocks. At the third one, manned by about 40 policemen, she and her companions were told their car would not be allowed to proceed any further or go back, and their papers were confiscated. Marzouki and Boukhdir announced that they would continue on foot. As the two of them set off, the police finally relented and allowed all four to continue in their vehicle. However, they were subsequently attacked on two occasions, each time as police looked on without intervening. The first time was when a group of youths jostled them and insulted them as they left a restaurant. They nonetheless managed to continue on their way. The second time was outside Kef prison, where they found about 30 youths awaiting them. All four of them were physically attacked by the youths, who also damaged their car. This time, the police not only watched but also filmed the assault, again without intervening. Abbou and her three companions finally gave up and returned to Tunis without being able to visit Mohammed Abbou. Contacted by phone, Marzouki told Reporters Without Borders he had never before been subjected to such violence. Samia Abbou was suffering from shock, he said. Abbou and her family have been constantly harassed ever since her husband, known as the “freedom lawyer” was arrested last year. In October, the Tunisian police tried to intimidate her by surrounding her home and preventing friends and lawyers from visiting her. She has constantly struggled to protest against his prison conditions ever since his arrest. Mohammed Abbou has been detained in Kef prison since 1 March 2005. At a sham trial on 29 April 2005, he received a total of three and a half years in prison terms, which were upheld on appeal two months later. His offences included posting an article on a website that compared the torture of political prisoners in Tunisia to that perpetrated by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Reporters Without Borders established a system of sponsorship 16 years ago in which international media are encouraged to adopt imprisoned journalists. More than 200 news organisations throughout the world are currently supporting journalists by regularly calling on the authorities to release them and by publicising their cases. Mohammed Abbou has been adopted by Aldaketa Hamasei-Cambio 16, El Periódico de Catalunya, CIBL FM, Campus, Quartier Libre and Le Métropolitain. ------------- Create your blog with Reporters without borders: www.rsfblog.org