The Tunisian government has been increasingly using arbitrary arrests to suppress dissent, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has found.
The organisation documented 22 cases where people were detained on what it called abusive charges, including terrorism, in connection with their public statements or political activities.
At least 14 of the detainees could face capital punishment if convicted.
“Not since the 2011 revolution have Tunisian authorities unleashed such repression,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “President Kais Saied’s government has returned the country to an era of political prisoners, robbing Tunisians of hard-won civil liberties.”
By January of this year, over 50 people were being held on political grounds for exercising their rights, HRW said.
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The documented cases include lawyers, political opponents, activists, journalists, social media users and a human rights defender.
Abir Moussi, president of the Free Destourian Party (PDL) and Rached Ghannouchi, former president of the Ennahda opposition party and former speaker of parliament, are among the politicians detained.
Tunisia, a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, has had its human rights record severely questioned since Saied’s takeover of state institutions in July 2021.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions of people critical of the government have particularly increased since early 2023.
Dissidents are often accused of “undermining external state security”, “conspiracy against state security” or attempting to “change the nature of the state”.
Amen Hadj Malek, whose sister Chadha is one of the journalists currently detained, told HRW that prison guards have refused to give her medical treatment, despite her hearing disability.
“She lost her livelihood, and being associated with a conspiracy and terrorism case made her feel like a pariah,” he said.
