Torture victims bring actions against Tunisia over regime’s inaction
Six former detainees, victims of torture in Tunisia under Bourguiba and Ben Ali, have lodged a complaint against Tunisia, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) says.
According to the New Arab on January 24th, the complaints comes after the victims sought relief in the special tribunals launched in 2018, seven years after the ouster of Ben Ali.
However, “Not one trial has led to a verdict, and the prosecutions have reached a stalemate”, regrets vice-president of OMCT Mokhtatr Trifi.
The NGO is supporting victims of torture Rached Jaidane and Mohamed Koussai Jaibi, jailed from 1993 to 2006, and the families of four other victims that died under torture in the Tunisian jails: Nabil Barketi (in 1987), Faysal Baraket, Rachid Chammaki and Sohnoun Jouhri (all in 1991).
The victims, as young as 25, include teachers, students, a journalist and a pharmacist, all of them jailed for their political activities reports Nawaat.
“I am not seeking damages, but I want a formal apology from the State, that’s the most important”, explains M. Jaidane.
Nabil Barketi’s brother, Ridha, added: “We are tired of seeking our rights through the courts.”
This is “the victim’s last recourse” to have Tunisia condemned and to force Tunisia’s competent authorities to resolve their inquiry; “This could bring attention on the shortcomings of the transitional process”, explains Helene Legeay, the OMCT’s legal director.
While it could take three or four years, the complaint has “every chance of being accepted” by the UN committee, she says, since Tunisia is a party of the UN Convention against Torture. The complaint fulfils the requirement of exhaustion of recourse in the national jurisdiction.
In the past six years, a myriad of obstacles has halted the process: judges being transferred; the lack of judges specializing in “transitional justice”; the absence of defendants, most of them policemen.
Above all, she says, transitional justice “is not a priority for the current regime”.
In their general statement, the OMCT is even clearer: “There is continuing impunity for the human rights violation perpetrated by the Tunisian security services during the dictatorship”.
The New Arab
