Home

Sihem Bensedrine

Tunisia: Smear campaign against human rights defender Sihem Bensedrineposted on: 2009/01/09

Front Line is concerned at the smear campaign against Ms Sihem Bensedrine, spokesperson of the Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie - CNLT (National Council for Liberties in Tunisia) and chief editor of the online newspaper and radio Kalima. Several newspapers have reported on accusations of opportunism and misuse of funds brought against Sihem Bensedrine by a former employee at Kalima, and depicted her and other eminent human rights defenders as 'radical activists' in apparently orchestrated smear campaign.

  • Read more
  • Share this

Tunisia: Arbitrary detention and interrogation of human rights defenders Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiriposted on: 2008/06/23

On 18 June 2008, Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiri were stopped at the Tunisian-Algerian border while on their way to an event in Algeria to promote freedom of expression in the region. They were interrogated for approximately two and a half hours before being released. No reasons were given for their interrogation. Omar Mestiri is the chief editor of the online newspaper Kalima and Sihem Bensedrine is the founder and spokesperson of the Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie (CNLT) (National Council for Civil Liberties in Tunisia) and the Secretary-General for the Observatoire pour la Liberté de presse, d'édition et de création en Tunisie (OLPEC) (Observatory for the Freedom of the Press, Publication, and the Arts in Tunisia). On 7 February 2008, Sihem Bensedrine was awarded the 2008 Peace Prize by the Danish Peace Foundation.

Tunisia: Arbitrary detention and assault of human rights defenders Omar Mestiri and Sihem Bensedrineposted on: 2008/03/07

On 3 March 2008 at 8.15am, Omar Mestiri and Sihem Bensedrine were returning to Tunis from a trip to Europe when they were subjected to a full-body search on their arrival at the port of La Goulette. Members of the Tunisian Political Police requested that they follow them to the customs office, on the pretext of fulfilling an administrative formality. Once inside the office, the policemen reportedly locked the door and Omar Mestiri and Sihem Bensedrine were detained for six hours, during which time they were subject to beatings while their clothes were damaged and their bags torn open. The policemen reportedly confiscated their mobile phones and their bank cards. Several original documents were taken and the policemen also made copies of the hard discs of their lap-top computers. Sihem Bensedrine is currently suffering from a sprained wrist and an injury to her elbow as a result of the assault.