URGENT ACTION

TUNISIAN DETAINED AFTER FORCIBLE RETURN

Tunisian national Ali Ben Sassi Toumi has been held incommunicado since being forcibly returned from Italy on 2 August. His relatives have not been informed of his whereabouts, and he is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Ali Ben Sassi Toumi, aged 44, was arrested at the airport in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, following his forcible return from Italy. He sent an SMS (text) message to his wife in Italy to say that he had arrived, but he did not meet a friend who was waiting for him at the airport, and his family has not heard from him since. He is believed to be held at the Department of State Security (DSS) of the Ministry of Interior in Tunis. Detainees held incommunicado there are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

The Tunisian authorities have not informed any of Ali Ben Sassi Toumi’s immediate relatives in Tunisia about the reasons for and place of his detention, as required under Tunisian law, despite inquiries from his lawyer.

Ali Ben Sassi Toumi was released from prison in Benevento, Italy, on 18 May, after serving four years of a six-year sentence on charges of belonging to a terrorist cell in Italy and recruiting fighters for the insurgency in Iraq. He applied for asylum in Italy, but his claim was rejected on the basis that he had been convicted of committing a “serious crime”. He had been held in an immigration detention centre known as an Identification and Expulsion Centre (Centro di identificazione ed espulsione) in Isola di Capo Rizzuto in the Province of Crotone, south-east Italy, since his release from prison. He was forcibly returned despite the European Court of Human Rights calling three times on the Italian authorities to stay the deportation, on the grounds that he was at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in Tunisia.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English, Arabic or your own language:

• urging the authorities to disclose Ali Ben Sassi Toumi’s whereabouts immediately, and give him access to a lawyer of his choice, his family and any medical attention he may require;

• urging them to ensure that he is not tortured or otherwise ill-treated;

• urging them to release Ali Ben Sassi Toumi immediately and unconditionally, unless he is promptly charged with a recognizably criminal offence and brought to trial in proceedings that meet international standards for fair trial.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 16 SEPTEMBER 2009 TO: