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| Director visits prison in Tunis |
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Director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen-Memorial is allowed to visit infamous prison in Tunis for the first time
The director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen-Memorial, Hubertus Knabe, visited on Monday, the 3rd October, the remand prison of the Tunisian Security Service for the first time. On invitation of the Minister of Interior, Habib Essid, he could view the infamous place in the Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis for two hours, accompanied by a German TV-team. It was the first time the Tunisian administration made the prison accessible for an outsider. The press officer of the Minister of Interior, Mohamed Hichem El Meddeb, proclaimed that the government wants to show the media the prison before the elections on 23th October take place, as well.
According to him, all prisoners were released after the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali was dispossessed.
The comparatively small cell wing served the Tunisian Security Service as lodging of the new imprisoned. Many of them have been tortured very bad. Inter alia, they were shackled, had to stand on the head, so the guards could put them things into the anus. After the interrogations they either were released or were transported to other prisons.
During the visit the press officer declared that the Tunisian Justice will proof every accusation of torture. In the future, the Ministry wants to work in a transparent and political neutral way.
Unfortunately, it is not exactly known where the papers of the Security Service can be found.
Knabe thanked the Tunisian Minister of Interior for the possibility to visit the prison. He appealed to the administration to save the papers of the Security Service. “These papers belong to the national memory of Tunisia and have to be protected against destruction”, Knabe said in Tunis. “I’m alarmed that the Minister of Interior does not know where they are”. Knabe offered to assist the constitutional convention in the drafting of a appropriate law.
View of the former prison of the Tunisian Security Service | back
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