US embassy cable - 05TUNIS1379

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 001379 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/FO, NEA/PI, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2015 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, KPAO, KMPI, KDEM, TS 
SUBJECT: MEETING WITH SAMIA ABBOU 
 
REF: TUNIS 1282 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William Hudson for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) Summary:  Abbou supporters continue to seek USG 
intervention in the case of jailed lawyer/activist Mohamed 
Abbou (ref A).  According to his wife, Abbou refused to bring 
his case before the Supreme Court because it would be giving 
too much legitimacy to what he and his supporters believe is 
a farcical judicial system.  Mrs. Abbou holds out some hope 
that her husband will be released under an amnesty that could 
be announced July 25, Tunisian national day, but says her 
husband refused a deal which offered him a pardon in exchange 
for signing a statement of guilt.  Post will continue to 
raise this case at senior levels of the GOT. Meanwhile, the 
GOT-controlled local press widely publicized measures offered 
by President Ben Ali to improve lawyers' working conditions, 
in an apparent attempt to co-opt or divide the unified 
lawyers association.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C)  Pol Counselor and HROff met with Samia Abbou, wife of 
jailed lawyer/activist Mohamed Abbou, and Faithi Jerbi, 
professor/activist on June 22 to get an update after Abbou's 
sentence of three and a half years was upheld in appellate 
court on June 10 (ref A). Mrs. Abbou said her husband and his 
supporters had decided not to take the appeal to the Supreme 
Court because it would simply lend legitimacy to the justice 
system which Jerbi says is "controlled by police."  Both 
urged that the U.S. exert stronger public pressure on the GOT 
for Abbou's release; Jerbi said the case should be considered 
in the context of wider U.S. democratization efforts in the 
region. Jerbi mentioned that when the State Department 
spokesmen issued a statement on Abbou on May 5, the 
transcript was enlarged into a banner and hung on the wall of 
the building where lawyers in support of Abbou were holding a 
52-day sit-in. 
 
3. (C) Mrs. Abbou and Jerbi claimed there was a small 
possibility that Abbou would be released under a general 
amnesty that could come around July 25, Tunisia's Republic 
Day.  Abbou said that if her husband was not pardoned on July 
25, they would both begin a hunger strike.  (Abbou recently 
went on hunger strike to protest a ban on visits by his 
lawyers, but he ended it shortly thereafter upon resumption 
of visiting privileges.)  Mrs. Abbou also claimed a judge had 
offered a deal on behalf of the GOT, which would have allowed 
Mohamed Abbou's immediate freedom if he signed a statement of 
guilt and apology.  She was adamant that this deal was not 
even considered by her or her husband. Jerbi further alleged 
that if Mohamed Abbou signed a letter of apology, the GOT 
would publicize it widely, and seek to discredit him in other 
ways.  Jerbi opined that the GOT underestimated the reaction 
to the Abbou case, especially among the lawyer community. 
 
4. (SBU)  Meanwhile, all local press on June 23 featured a 
front page article featuring a meeting between President Ben 
Ali and the Minister of Justice, citing "new presidential 
measures in favor of lawyers."  The measures listed include 
the development of computerized administration of the 
Ministry of Justice, space for children and families in the 
courtroom, a move to improve insurance and housing benefits 
of magistrates and Ministry of Justice employees, the 
announcement of the conclusions of a presidential commission 
on "the creation of a higher institution of the bar" and a 
commission on social security for lawyers, and a vague 
initiative to "extend the field of intervention of lawyers to 
new areas, and to draft related legal texts". 
 
5. (C) COMMENT: We plan to raise Abbou's plight with Americas 
and Asia Director Atallah in the next few days, indicating 
our concern that the case, which centers on freedom of 
expression, has become a focal point for anti-GOT commentary 
during the few months before the World Summit on the 
Information Society (WSIS).  In what is a fairly traditional 
move to co-opt and infiltrate strong, non-RCD associations, 
the GOT widely publicized Ben Ali's offer to improve lawyers' 
working conditions, seeking through the same announcement to 
weaken public sympathy for the lawyers' cause.  But some 
lawyers argue that these largely superficial initiatives do 
not address the true concern of the lawyers behind Abbou: 
that the Tunisian judicial system is politicized and the rule 
of law is ignored in favor of heavy government intervention 
in individual cases.  Thus, they will have little effect on 
the newly energized legal community.  END COMMENT. 
HUDSON