Programs: Science and Policy
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AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program
View Alerts By > Case | Date | Country | Victim
AAAS Human Rights Action Network
| Date: | 21 June 1996 |
| Case Number: | tu9541_ben |
| Victim: | Hafedh Ben Gharbia |
| Country: | Tunisia |
| Subject: | Electrical Engineering Student Released |
| Issues: | Freedom of association and assembly; Freedom of opinion and expression; Right to travel; Torture |
| Type of alert: | Update |
FACTS OF THE CASE:
Hafedh Ben Gharbia, an electrical engineering student, was released on 22 May 1996, approximately two months before the completion of his prison sentence. He is still subject to five years' administrative control during which he must report several times a week to the police station and is unable to leave Tunisia.
Hafedh Ben Gharbia had been arrested on 21 April 1995 upon his arrival in Tunisia to visit his family. He was held in incommunicado detention for several weeks. He was tried in Tunis on 27 May 1995 and sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment on charges of participating in a meeting and demonstration in Germany in 1988. Tunisian law allows for the imprisonment of Tunisian nationals for peaceful activities in other countries even if these activities were legal in the country in which they took place. His prison sentence was confirmed on appeal, and five years' administrative control was added.
AAAS welcomes his release, but remains concerned that he is subjected to administrative control, and will be unable to return to Germany to finish his studies.
[Source of information on this case is Amnesty International.]
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