New call for the release of Mohammed Abbu

Reporters Without Borders has renewed its call for the release of lawyer and human rights defender Mohammed Abbu, jailed since 1st March 2005 over articles posted online, who remains in prison, despite the release of nearly 80 political prisoners by the authorities on 25 February 2006. "We welcome the release of the Zarzis Internet-users and journalist Hamadi Jebali. But why exclude Mohammed Abbu from the list of prisoners freed to mark the 50th anniversary of national independence?” asked Reporters Without Borders. “We urge diplomats to keep campaigning to secure his freedom,” the press freedom organisation added. Mohammed Abbu's wife along with four of his lawyers, managed to hold a short-lived demonstration on 2 March 2006 in front of Kef prison where her husband is serving his sentence. They brandished the lawyer's portrait and chanted his name. Police stopped their vehicle about 15 times on the road from Tunis to the prison. Other human rights activists who tried to join the demonstration were turned back. The organisation also calls on the Tunisian authorities to allow pro-democrat activists access to the Internet. The personal connections of most opposition figures have been cut off, at the request of the Tunisian Internet Agency, since the end of October 2005 - just before the start of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Mokhtar Yahyaoui, a former judge, opposition activist and weblogger, spoke out against the harassment. “They cut off my Internet connection as soon as I began my hunger strike, on 18 October 2005. Since then I have had a lot of problems trying to get my blog up and running again. In addition I am under constant police surveillance. Our situation has worsened since the end of the WSIS”. Abbu was sentenced on 29 April 2005, to three years and six months in prison, at the end of a mockery of a trial. His sentence was upheld on appeal two months later. He was tried on two counts. On the first he was sentenced to two years in prison for an alleged assault on a female colleague, in 2002, without any evidence being produced. On the second count, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for posting an article online in which he compared torture inflicted on political prisoners in Tunisia with abuses committed by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. Over 15 years ago, Reporters without Borders created its "Sponsorship Programme" and called upon the international media to select and support an imprisoned journalist. More than two hundreds news staffs around the globe are thus sponsoring colleagues by regularly petitioning authorities for their release and by publicising their situations so that their cases will not be forgotten. Currently, Mohammed Abbou is sponsored by Aldaketa Hamasei-Cambio 16, El Periodico de Catalunya, CIBL FM, Campus, Quartier Libre, Le Métropolitain ------------- Create your blog with Reporters without borders: www.rsfblog.org