WRITTEN QUESTION E-2927/00 by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission. Taoufik Chaïeb's 50th day of hunger strike.
Date: 2000-09-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Islam, Tunisia, freedom of opinion, hunger strike, imprisonment

C 113 E/216

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.4.2001

(2001/C 113 E/233)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2927/00

by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission

(19 September 2000)

Subject: Taoufik Cha(cid:239)eb(cid:146)s 50th day of hunger strike

Mr Taoufik Cha(cid:239)eb has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison and has been incarcerated since
28 August 1996 for (cid:145)membership of an unauthorised organisation (En Nahdha) and for the organisation of
secret meetings(cid:146). On 10 July this year, Mr Taoufik Cha(cid:239)eb began a hunger strike asking to be released (cid:145)for
having been sentenced three times for the same offences(cid:146).

After visiting her husband in the civilian prison of Tunis on 18 August, Mrs Cha(cid:239)eb confirmed that he was
suffering from an ulcer and tachycardia and that his physical condition was increasingly critical. According
to the National Committee for Freedom in Tunisia (CNLT), Mr Cha(cid:239)eb (cid:145)can no longer stand and can hardly
talk(cid:146). Furthermore, the Tunis prison authorities continually refuse to allow his lawyer, Radhia Nassraoui, to
meet her client.

Is the Commission aware of the serious decline in Mr Cha(cid:239)eb(cid:146)s state of health? If so, what measures has it
taken to prevent yet another tragedy from taking place in a country which is held up as a model in the
context of the European Union(cid:146)s policy of association? Is the Commission also aware that Mr Cha(cid:239)eb(cid:146)s
membership of the (cid:145)En Nahdha(cid:146) organisation is probably not unrelated to a certain intransigence which
some in Tunis might welcome as a pretext for rekindling the (cid:145)Islamic threat(cid:146) and thereby (cid:145)justifying(cid:146) the
drift towards authoritarianism which is meeting growing opposition both in Tunisia itself and in the
international community?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(5 October 2000)

According to information available to the Commission, Taoufik Cha(cid:239)eb was pardoned on 30 August and
has returned home. He had been on hunger strike since 10 July. Mr Cha(cid:239)eb (36), member of the Islamic
(cid:145)En Nahdha(cid:146) movement, had received two sentences of 2‰ years and had been in prison for six months. In
the past he had already served a 3‰-year sentence.

(2001/C 113 E/234)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2929/00

by Marco Cappato (TDI) to the Council

(20 September 2000)

Subject: Cuban authorities(cid:146) attempts to keep an Italo-Cuban couple apart and prevent them from emigrat-

ing

In 1999, an Italian national, Enrico Orlandini, married a Cuban national, Yaima Prado Gattorno. When the
latter applied to the Cuban authorities for a passport with a view to emigrating with her husband, the
authorities decided to enforce a sentence for (cid:145)association with a foreigner(cid:146), which had previously been
passed but had until then been suspended. Meanwhile, the husband has been refused all contact with his
wife under the threat of a still harsher punishment should he attempt to contact her.

Will the Council intervene in this specific case and, more generally, will it raise the question of abolishing
the offence of (cid:145)association with a foreigner(cid:146) in the context of its relations with the Cuban Government?

Reply

(30 November 2000)

The Council is keeping a careful watch on the human rights situations in Cuba. However, the specific case
referred to by the Honourable Member has not been referred to the Council or discussed by it as such.