EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 84/3

(2004/C 84 E/0004)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0646/03

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(4 March 2003)

Subject: Smear campaign against Mohammed Charfi

Mohammed Charfi, an eminent professor of private law and former president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (1988-1989), has recently been the target of threats from the imam of Kairouan, Abdehrrame Khlif (who was a Member of Parliament for the Tunisian ruling party between 1989 and 1994). The threats were first uttered in June 2002, in a sermon fanatical in the extreme, and have been circulating over the past few days in the form of a video recording. They are based on grotesque misrepresentation of Mr Charfi's words and amount to an out-and-out call to aggression. Mr Charfi, who served as minister of education from 1989 to 1994, has won a Unesco award and, among other things, is the author of an essay entitled ‘Islam and Freedom’, which was published in France in 1998 but initially banned in Tunisia. After the ban was lifted last year, the pro-government press launched a smear campaign against him.

Is the Commission aware of the plight of Mohammed Charfi and has it asked the Tunisian authorities to explain why a long-running campaign of harassment and slander has been openly directed against him? Given that the Ben Ali regime is using the crackdown on the En Nahdha Islamic movement as a pretext for systematic assaults on fundamental freedoms, can the Commission remain indifferent to the government connivance that has allowed the imam of Kairouan to disseminate his intolerant fundamentalist imprecations? Does it not believe that it should employ every political and diplomatic means to demonstrate its opposition to the increasingly repressive tendencies of the Tunisian regime, thereby championing the democratic values underlying the EU-Tunisia Association Agreement?

Joint answer

to Written Questions E-0561/03 and E-0646/03

given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(21 March 2003)

The Commission is following Mr Hamadi Jebali's and other prisoners' hunger strikes with great concern. The Honourable Member is aware of the Union's and the Commission's position in particular on detention conditions in Tunisia and of the instruments at our disposal to improve the situation notably of political prisoners. (See the Commission's answers to his written questions E-0250/03 and 0263/03 (1), E-3031/02 (2), and E-2526/02, E-2597/02 and E-2629/02 (3)).

Through its heads of mission in Tunis, the Union is continuing to monitor the hunger strike movement in Tunisian prisons, as well as Mr Jebali's situation.

The issue of a general amnesty for crimes of conscience committed between 1980 and 1990 has not been raised by the Commission with the Tunisian authorities.

The Commission is not aware of the events reported by the Honourable Member regarding Mr Mohammed Charfi. It is therefore not aware of acts or statements attributed to Kairouan's religious authorities, but will seek relevant information via its Delegation in Tunis.

Democratic values constitute an important element of the association agreement and the Presidency of the Union, like the Commission, which is associated with it in tasks relating to these issues, is continuing to press in its political dialogue with the Tunisian authorities, for their implementation in Tunisia.

(1) OJ C 161 E, 10.7.2003, p. 202.

(2) OJ C 192 E, 14.8.2003, p. 90.

(3) OJ C 155 E, 3.7.2003, p. 26.