By Abdelaziz Boumzar TUNIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Some brought lunch for their sons, others waited at army barricades looking out for prison vans. Many had been there since Tunisia's government vowed this week to free political prisoners locked up under the old president.
Families waiting outside Borj Lamary prison on Thursday, complained that only a few hundred had been freed so far and demanded the release of all those imprisoned for political reasons during the 23-year rule of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
"We are waiting for the release of our sons. We have been waiting for three days now, since we heard about the pardon of political prisoners," said Mohammed Khaled Khmeira, who was waiting outside the jail.
"What bothers us most is the lack of information. There is no information from the prison. They told us nothing about how this will be implemented, who will be freed, who will not."
Tunisia's government promised this week to free 1,800 political prisoners. Facing popular and opposition demands, it decided on Thursday to grant recognition to all banned political groups and adopt an amnesty for all political prisoners.
Reuters cameramen saw one bus leave Borj Lamary prison on Thursday morning, carrying around 20 men who were welcomed by tearful relatives.
Among them was Sameer Hagouba, who had been studying at the Islamic al-Azhar university in Egypt when he was deported on terrorism-related charges and imprisoned in his native Tunisia.
"Does this look like the face of terrorism? asked Hagouba, a handsome young man with a light and carefully trimmed beard.
ISLAMISTS INSIDE
Other young men had been taken from their homes by internal security forces and never returned, their mothers said.
"They took all Muslims, men and women. They came to my house asking about my son. I said 'why are you asking about my son' and they said 'because he wants to go to Afghanistan to al Qaeda'. My son? He's 23 and he's going to Afghanistan? To al Qaeda?" said Fawzia Daloushi, awaiting her son Ziad, who had yet to be freed.
"They sentenced him to five years and they have tortured him and tortured him almost to death. He was being tortured and we were being tortured inside too," said Daloushi, who wore a white headscarf, little seen on the streets of Tunis, where Ben Ali enforced strict secular rules. Many of the relatives complained that Ben Ali's government cracked down on all devout Muslims, accusing them of links to Islamists or to terrorist groups.
"Half the prisoners in Tunisia are accused of being Khomeinists. They are not Khomeinist," said one man who gave his name as Sami, referring to the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"What happens is a plain clothes security official prays with them at the mosque and when they come out after prayers, they put them in cars and take them to jail and no one hears of them after that."
Ministers said on Thursday the amnesty and the legalisation of all political parties would include Tunisia's main Islamist party, Ennahda, and its members. [ID:nLDE70J27X]
Most of those waiting outside Borj Lamary said they visited their incarcerated relatives regularly, bringing them food and other supplies, but a few said they had little information.
"They beat them inside and how do we know what their situation is? I don't know what my son's situation is," said Balti Mabrouka, who wore a purple headscarf. "I don't know if my son is alive or dead."
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