Tunis, Tunisia – For nine-year-old Yassar Naouar, visiting his father in prison has become an exercise in staying strong. She tries not to cry in front of Wael, fearing that seeing her son crying will make an already painful situation more difficult for her. After leaving prison, Yassar finds a corner where he can finally let his tears fall. Hichem Naouar, Yassar’s grandfather, says the boy has changed since his father was detained. He now sleeps next to his mother after waking up screaming in the night and his results at school have worsened. When Yassar told his mother that other children kept asking if his father was a thief, she asked him what he thought. “Never,” the nine-year-old boy responded. Wael’s youngest son, four-year-old Sumud, is too young to understand why his father is in prison. Hichem says he took her to visit him. When he saw his father behind the glass, he leaned over to hug him, only to hit his head on the barrier. Hichem spoke to Al Jazeera on Wednesday outside Tunisia’s Court of Appeal, where he had gone to pursue the latest challenge to Wael’s detention. He choked up repeatedly as he described what he had seen during his most recent visit. Wael was sitting with his hand on his cheek, his father said, his elbow shaking and his gaze fixed into the distance. It was difficult for him to see clearly and retain water without vomiting. He was dizzy and had difficulty controlling his left leg. Wael later told Hichem that other prisoners had said he sometimes wakes up during the night screaming his youngest daughter’s name. But for his father, Wael’s story is also about the kind of person he has been. He recalled an incident during the Sumud land convoy in Libya in May, when gunmen tried to kidnap another participant. Wael intervened, pulling the man aside and helping him escape before returning to the men and telling them they could take him. During the first Sumud flotilla, a woman fell into the sea and nearly drowned. Wael immediately intervened and rescued her. “Wael’s strength is in the strength of his ideas and his commitment to his people. Whenever he heard about any injustice against workers or employees, you would always find him at the forefront,” Hichem said. The case and its wider consequencesWael, 41, began a hunger strike on August 16 to protest his continued detention and was taken to hospital when his condition deteriorated. He called off his strike after 38 days following appeals from his lawyers and supporters, saying the decision did not mean abandoning his demands. Four activists, Wael Naouar, Ghassan Henchiri, Ghassan Boughdiri and Nabil Channoufi, have been detained since March following an investigation by the Economic and Financial Judicial Pole of Tunisia, a specialized body that deals with financial and economic crimes. The investigation concerns alleged financial irregularities related to fundraising for the Sumud Global Flotilla, an international campaign that seeks to deliver aid to Gaza and challenge the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory. State news agency TAP, citing judicial sources, reported that investigators are examining the origin and use of funds raised for the flotilla and whether any were diverted for other purposes. The activists and their defense team have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and maintain their innocence. None of the four has been convicted. For their lawyers, the question is also why the men should remain in prison while the investigation continues. Ghassan Ghribi, a member of the defense committee, described the latest extension of his pretrial detention as an “exception to the exception,” arguing that freedom should be the rule and detention the exception. The four-month extension was ordered on September 11 and the defense challenged the decision before the Tunisian Court of Appeals. “The investigating judge spent six months on the case without doing any investigative work, apart from interrogating the activists,” Ghribi told Al Jazeera. He said the extension should be based on clear reasons and that the four men were obliged to pay the price for what he described as a lack of investigative work. The Court of Appeal rejected the challenge on Wednesday, leaving the quartet on remand for another four months while the investigation continues. Henchiri, Boughdiri and Channoufi remain on hunger strike. Authorities have presented the case as a financial investigation into the handling of funds raised for the flotilla, rather than a prosecution linked to the men’s political or pro-Palestinian activities. The government has rejected accusations that the judiciary is being used to silence opponents, saying that the judiciary is independent and that judicial procedures are carried out in accordance with the law. The consequences have also extended beyond the four men. Fourteen people detained after the September 19 protest calling for their release have since been remanded in custody, lawyer Rafed Rabbeh confirmed to Al Jazeera on Friday. Among them is a 17-year-old boy who was brought before a juvenile judge. Tunisia’s Child Protection Code says that priority should be given to preventive and educational measures and that preventive detention for children should be avoided as far as possible. Rabbeh said those detained face several charges, including participating in a meeting allegedly intended to disturb public order and commit a crime, publicly attributing illegal acts to a public official without evidence and making public statements that are considered to damage the reputation of a person or an official body. The accusations are based on several provisions of the Tunisian Penal Code. He was taken out of prison for further medical examination due to a head injury sustained during his detention in Israel, Sebti told Al Jazeera. Ghassan and his family have raised the issue with both the prison administration and the investigating judge. They were promised that he would receive the necessary medical tests, but that did not happen, Sebti said. “It could be a superficial injury, but with the prison conditions and the high temperatures, it has exhausted him,” he said. Ghassan also has other health problems, including living with one kidney and suffering from back problems, Sebti said. He has developed a skin rash that prevents him from sleeping, but his request to see a dermatologist was rejected because the prison doctor did not consider it serious, Sebti said. “I will stand firm, I will not give up my right and these malicious accusations are false,” Ghassan told his father. “He is my son, my brother, my partner, my whole life,” Sebti said. “Ghassan is a man of integrity. I’m not saying this because I’m his father. Everyone knows it.” Ghassan’s arrest has also transformed family life. He had been working at a high school and recently got engaged, Sebti said. He described Ghassan’s political commitment as rooted in the family. He has been involved in student activism and later unions since 1978, campaigning for freedom, the right to organize and a better and more dignified life for Tunisians. Ghassan grew up with these principles and was influenced by his father’s activism. “This is what Ghassan was raised on and what influenced him,” Sebti said. Human Rights Watch has also expressed concern about the use of financial and money laundering investigations against civil society actors in Tunisia. For the Naouar and Henchiri families, the impact of the detentions is felt at home, in prison visits, anxious phone calls and children asking when their parents will return. Yassar still asks about his father and has told his grandfather that he too is willing to go on a hunger strike. When asked where his father is, four-year-old Sumud replies: “Palestine. Prison.”
