Tunisia denies freezing human rights institute, its chief complains harassment

The Tunisian authorities denied it has frozen the activity of the Arab Institute for Human Rights and considered problems it undergoes as a result of "not respecting" enforced laws in Tunisia.

The Tunisian ambassador in Doha said in a message to al-Jazeera in reaction to a report on this issue that the Institute works normally since its foundation and the "conditional obstacles it faces are a result of not respecting the Tunisian laws, while it is presumed to be more careful to honor these laws."

The ambassador added that one of the Institute board of directors was sentenced three years ago to ten year imprisonment after he was found guilty over sexual abuse against one woman. This fact drops his credibility at the board. However, the ambassador said the Institute did not take any official decision to this end.

Nevertheless, the chairman of the Institute, al-Tayeb al-Bakkoush, said that the activity of the Institute is actually frozen because of suspension of its finances since 16 months because of the terrorism fighting law. He said that the institute only received verbal words on assurances that the matter will only take few weeks while it has been 20 months since the freeze.