Leather jacket, keffiyeh around his neck and cap on his head, Ahmed paces with Safwan and Hamed, the streets of the city Ettadhamen, a suburb north of Tunis. All three have the same simple childhood in a working class family in the impoverished neighborhood where they have piled up tens of thousands of Tunisians came for a job.
All three share a common faith and a rigorous practice of Islam ... which led them in the jails of Ben Ali. Ahmed, 27, is the last of the three to be released. Monday, January 31, he was granted an amnesty in respect of political prisoners by the transitional government. After three years and eight months in prison, Ahmed is free, but bears the marks of beatings suffered in detention.
The young man spoke with difficulty. He suffers from speech impairment. His story begins May 20, 2007, Sunday, noon thirty. He is at home with his parents and two brothers. Three 4 × 4 tumble rushing into the street. A dozen police officers out policies and calling. It is shipped by military, without his family has had time to understand.
"For twenty-seven days, there has been no news of Ahmed. We went to the police, the Interior Ministry, nobody told us anything," remembers his brother Nizar. For twenty-seven days, Ahmed has been detained incommunicado in the jails of the Ministry of Interior, Avenue Habib Bourguiba, Tunis.
A cell one meter by two, in the basement, lit day and night to take away all sense of time. It is questioned every day for hours. Always the same questions: "Do you do the prayer, since when? How fast? How many times a day how long? How? Who? Who pray in your family?" President Ben Ali has, from 1990, the hunt for Islamists.
His special fonts have redoubled their efforts since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the vote of the Terrorism Act 2003. City Ettadhamen is a prime target: some Salafi jihadists ready to commit to the Iraqi cause are located. Young practitioners sticklers like Ahmed, who pray five times a day at the mosque, are closely monitored.
Some 2,000 suspected Islamists have been arrested since 2003. "Some of them were content to pray, discuss, watch websites. Some discussed the need to support the Iraqis. Further, few, tried to leave. But in the files, we don 'have found no evidence of planning attacks, "said Radhia Nasraoui, a lawyer and president of the Association against Torture in Tunisia (ALTT).
Ahmed, himself, said he was practicing, not militant. He cotoyé perhaps a little too closely at these networks, whose name was given to the police arrested another youth earlier. The Department of the Interior, Ahmed is subjected to daily torture sessions of several hours. A doctor supervises the four torturers to ensure that the condemned do not slam their fingers.
Two techniques are preferred: that of "bano", where you dip the inmate's head into a basin filled with water and chemicals, and that both humiliating and violent, "roast chicken". Naked and hooded prisoners are suspended from a shaft by the arms and legs, they are swung upside down for hours, beaten with sticks and subjected to electric shocks behind the ears, armpits and on testes.
After twenty-seven days, the young man is finally transferred to the prison Mornaguia southwest of Tunis, where he is detained for a year without trial. He managed to warn his family through another prisoner released. For a year, it is harassed by the political police, who searched the house comes almost every week in the middle of the night.
The police will search until high school Sofiane, the younger brother of Ahmed, and prevent Nizar, his other brother, a professor of sports graduate work. Nobody talks to them, no family or neighbors, for fear of the police. At his trial, counsel shall be assigned to Ahmed. Neither he nor his family will meet with him.
"The authorities have offered no evidence at trial, they did not need it: the hearing lasted a few minutes and the judge sentenced him for belonging to a terrorist network," recounts Nizar. Also included in the record a confession made to the Ministry of Interior. "They made us sign a blank sheet," said Ahmed, if you do not sign, they were tortured.
" The young man is sentenced to four years' imprisonment with five years of administrative control. Ahmed will spend part of his years in prison in solitary confinement, where it is subjected to further abuse. It is forbidden to speak to prisoners "not terrorists". The hour daily walk is his only occupation.
Once a month, a member of his family visits him. Ten to fifteen minutes behind glass. "It made me sick to know that jail, but at the same time, I was proud because he was imprisoned for his religion, not because he committed a crime," said his mother Rebeh, the tears in her voice. The revolution Tunisian Ahmed offered a taste of freedom.
January 16, prison authorities at Borj el-Amri let prisoners escape. Ahmed returned to his family for a few days prior to obey the call to surrender was launched by Minister of Justice. "He only had four months before his release legal, so we brought him on Jan. 21 that he performs his sentence and is legally free," said his mother.
On his return to prison, the director accused of torture and escape, a sign of maintaining the Ben Ali regime long after his escape. Ahmed has now found other companions in misfortune, released before him. He wants to take his case to justice for his killers to trial. Still under the administrative control, he must report his daily presence at the police station.
The same agents, already in place under Ben Ali, have been welcoming. They do but harass more jaugent a threatening eye. It's time for prayer, Ahmed press his friend Safwan. Question to go to the mosque. "If I go to the mosque, I will be imprisoned." Helen Salon 
All three share a common faith and a rigorous practice of Islam ... which led them in the jails of Ben Ali. Ahmed, 27, is the last of the three to be released. Monday, January 31, he was granted an amnesty in respect of political prisoners by the transitional government. After three years and eight months in prison, Ahmed is free, but bears the marks of beatings suffered in detention.
The young man spoke with difficulty. He suffers from speech impairment. His story begins May 20, 2007, Sunday, noon thirty. He is at home with his parents and two brothers. Three 4 × 4 tumble rushing into the street. A dozen police officers out policies and calling. It is shipped by military, without his family has had time to understand.
"For twenty-seven days, there has been no news of Ahmed. We went to the police, the Interior Ministry, nobody told us anything," remembers his brother Nizar. For twenty-seven days, Ahmed has been detained incommunicado in the jails of the Ministry of Interior, Avenue Habib Bourguiba, Tunis.
A cell one meter by two, in the basement, lit day and night to take away all sense of time. It is questioned every day for hours. Always the same questions: "Do you do the prayer, since when? How fast? How many times a day how long? How? Who? Who pray in your family?" President Ben Ali has, from 1990, the hunt for Islamists.
His special fonts have redoubled their efforts since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the vote of the Terrorism Act 2003. City Ettadhamen is a prime target: some Salafi jihadists ready to commit to the Iraqi cause are located. Young practitioners sticklers like Ahmed, who pray five times a day at the mosque, are closely monitored.
Some 2,000 suspected Islamists have been arrested since 2003. "Some of them were content to pray, discuss, watch websites. Some discussed the need to support the Iraqis. Further, few, tried to leave. But in the files, we don 'have found no evidence of planning attacks, "said Radhia Nasraoui, a lawyer and president of the Association against Torture in Tunisia (ALTT).
Ahmed, himself, said he was practicing, not militant. He cotoyé perhaps a little too closely at these networks, whose name was given to the police arrested another youth earlier. The Department of the Interior, Ahmed is subjected to daily torture sessions of several hours. A doctor supervises the four torturers to ensure that the condemned do not slam their fingers.
Two techniques are preferred: that of "bano", where you dip the inmate's head into a basin filled with water and chemicals, and that both humiliating and violent, "roast chicken". Naked and hooded prisoners are suspended from a shaft by the arms and legs, they are swung upside down for hours, beaten with sticks and subjected to electric shocks behind the ears, armpits and on testes.
After twenty-seven days, the young man is finally transferred to the prison Mornaguia southwest of Tunis, where he is detained for a year without trial. He managed to warn his family through another prisoner released. For a year, it is harassed by the political police, who searched the house comes almost every week in the middle of the night.
The police will search until high school Sofiane, the younger brother of Ahmed, and prevent Nizar, his other brother, a professor of sports graduate work. Nobody talks to them, no family or neighbors, for fear of the police. At his trial, counsel shall be assigned to Ahmed. Neither he nor his family will meet with him.
"The authorities have offered no evidence at trial, they did not need it: the hearing lasted a few minutes and the judge sentenced him for belonging to a terrorist network," recounts Nizar. Also included in the record a confession made to the Ministry of Interior. "They made us sign a blank sheet," said Ahmed, if you do not sign, they were tortured.
" The young man is sentenced to four years' imprisonment with five years of administrative control. Ahmed will spend part of his years in prison in solitary confinement, where it is subjected to further abuse. It is forbidden to speak to prisoners "not terrorists". The hour daily walk is his only occupation.
Once a month, a member of his family visits him. Ten to fifteen minutes behind glass. "It made me sick to know that jail, but at the same time, I was proud because he was imprisoned for his religion, not because he committed a crime," said his mother Rebeh, the tears in her voice. The revolution Tunisian Ahmed offered a taste of freedom.
January 16, prison authorities at Borj el-Amri let prisoners escape. Ahmed returned to his family for a few days prior to obey the call to surrender was launched by Minister of Justice. "He only had four months before his release legal, so we brought him on Jan. 21 that he performs his sentence and is legally free," said his mother.
On his return to prison, the director accused of torture and escape, a sign of maintaining the Ben Ali regime long after his escape. Ahmed has now found other companions in misfortune, released before him. He wants to take his case to justice for his killers to trial. Still under the administrative control, he must report his daily presence at the police station.
The same agents, already in place under Ben Ali, have been welcoming. They do but harass more jaugent a threatening eye. It's time for prayer, Ahmed press his friend Safwan. Question to go to the mosque. "If I go to the mosque, I will be imprisoned." Helen Salon
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