Brussels, 21/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, French Socialists Harlem Desir and Marie-Arlette Carlotti and French Green Helene Flautre, as well as the Belgian Radical elected in Italy, Olivier Dupuis, denounce the "constant harassment" to which leaders of democratic organisations are subjected to in Tunisia, and call on the Tunisian authorities to stop these practices and guarantee the freedom of action of defenders of human rights. They also deplore the "summary nature of the hearing and harshness of the sentence" inflicted, on 12 February, on the Secretary General of the Tunisian League of Human Rights, Khemais Ksila. The MEPs call for a review of this trial that they regard as having been "manipulated", and recall that Mr. Ksila has been the target of the Tunisian authorities for years and that he had, notably, been the victim of arbitrary detention, prohibited from working, administrative and police harassment, anonymous defamatory tracts and a particularly virulent press campaign. Mr. Ksila was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison with immediate effect and a 5,000 dinar fine for the attempted rape and sexual harassment of a secretary of the League.