hunger strike

On 28 January 2010, Saharawi human rights defender Dagja Lachgar was temporarily released following three months and twenty days in detention in Sale military prison, Morocco. Human rights defender Ali Salem Tamek, Brahim Dahane, Ahmad Anasiri, Yahdih Ettarrouzi, Saleh Lebayhi, and Rachid Sghayar, who remain in detention in Sale prison, have declared that they will commence a 48-hour hunger strike on 4 February 2009, in protest against the ill-treatment that they are subjected to in detention. 

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that Yahya Mohamed el Hafed Aaza has resumed his hunger strike and is in a critical condition in hospital. 

A group of journalists and human rights defenders launched a hunger strike on 20 October in protest “against the government’s undeclared war on the free press”, since 9 November representatives of all the leading independent media in Azerbaijan are taking part.

“This hunger strike is drastic method of protest that shows how difficult the situation has become for Azerbiajan's independent media,” the press freedom organization said. “We are worried that the state of health of several of the hunger strikers, including Sakit Zahidov's brother Ganimat, the editor of the opposition daily Azadlig, who was adamant in his refusal when asked to stop by the Union of Journalists.”

Sakit Zahidov is a recent victim of the governments crackdown on press freedoms, a prominent independent journalist, he was sentenced on 4 October to three years in prison for “possession of drugs for personal consumption” ensuing a trail described as 'chaotic'. Zahidov has insisted that the police planted the heroin and that the charges are politically motivated. A court will hear his appeal on 1 December. Sakit joined in solidarity with the hunger strikers on 23 November. 

1 September 2005

A Sahrawi (Western Saharan) human rights defender, due to attend the bi-annual Front Line platform for human rights defenders in October, is unlikely to appear as he is on hunger strike in a Moroccan prison.

Ali Salem Tamek (31), a founding member of the Saharan branch of the human rights organization Forum for Truth and Justice, is being held without charge in Ait Meloul prison, Morocco.

Mr. Tamek was arrested on July 18th at D’el Ayoun airport after returning from Europe where he had been campaigning for Western Saharan independence from Morocco and raising awareness of human rights violations in the region. According to The Sahara Presse Service, Tamek, along with four other imprisoned Sahrawi human rights defenders, Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, El Hussein Lidri, Brahim Noumria and Laarbi Massoud, has been on hunger strike for three weeks.

Front Line is seriously concerned about the health of Ali Salem Talek and calls on the Moroccan authorities for his immediate and unconditional release

17 November 2005 A press conference, on 16 November attended by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, at the Tunis headquarters of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), in effect, became the first unofficial meeting of the Citizens Summit on Information Technology (CSIS) The Tunisian government has systematically blocked the alternative summit’s preparatory meetings and planned workshops and events in flagrant breach of the right to freedom of expression and association. In doing so, the Tunisian Government has demonstrated contempt for the Geneva Principles* and for their obligations under the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and international human rights law.

Leading representatives of International and Tunisian Civil Society committed themselves to continuing the struggle for the basic rights to freedom of expression and association in Tunisia in front of the audience of over 200 journalists, diplomats and NGO members. The Mayor of Geneva, echoing the statements of the President of Switzerland’s comment at the official World Summit, said that rights freedom of expression and assembly were universal and not the domain of one culture