Tunisian President Called to Testify in Torture Case

 

(EPA photo)

Tunisia's perennial President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (above) has been subpoenaed to testify in a case of torture by a Strasbourg, France, court, Lebanon's Daily Star reports.

Khaled Ben Said, Tunisia's former Strasbourg vice consul, will go on trial on December 15 on charges of committing torture and barbarity in Tunisia. He is accused of torturing a woman for almost 24 hours about her husband's alleged anti-government activities in 1996 when he was a police commissioner in Tunisia.

According to [victim's lawyer Eric] Plouvier, it is the first time a French court will try a foreign diplomat for acts of torture committed abroad.

Zoulaikha Gharbi, who lived in France with her family for many years, filed the complaint against Ben Said when he held the Strasbourg vice-consul post in 2001. On Tuesday Tunisia's government denied the charges against Ben Said as "totally unfounded and aiming to mislead public opinion."

A spokesperson from the Tunisian government called the charges "completely made up" and questioned the French court's jurisdiction to call Ben Ali to testify.

But Plouvier said a number of factors point to the former vice consul's involvement. "Ben Said has never replied to any police or judicial summons," she said. "The Tunisian authorities have never deigned to respond to the international investigation commission launched by a Strasburg judge to help his inquiry."

She added that as Zoulaikha Gharbi's husband received political asylum in 1993 "he is considered a victim of persecution and torture in Tunisia for his political opinions" because of the treatment inflicted on his wife.

Human rights groups say torture and other forms of repression have been common under Ben Ali's authoritarian regime.