Arbitrary and politically motivated acts of repression have proliferated in Tunisia since July 25, 2021, when President Kais Saied suspended parliament, Human Rights Watch said today. He also lifted parliamentary immunity, dismissed the head of government, and took control of the office of the public prosecutor; that’s how the Human Rights Watch began its article published on september,11th,2021.
This article talked mainly about the deputies and lawmakers put under house arrest and banned from travelling.
“President Saied’s reassurances on human rights sound hollow when he concentrates power in his own hands, parliamentarians and other Tunisians suddenly start facing arbitrary restrictions on their freedom, and some are packed off to prison,” said Eric Goldstein, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Since Saied’s announcement, civilian and military prosecutors announced investigations against at least 10 parliament members, four of whom are detained. Imad Ghabri, spokesperson of the Tunis Administrative Court, said on September 9 that those under house arrest, by order of the interim interior minister Saied appointed, also include government officials and former officials, parliamentarians, judges, businessmen, and advisers to previous governments. Ghabri said that as of September 9, 10 had appealed their house arrests before the Tunis Administrative Court, according to this article.
It even talked about the two deputies: Faycel Tebini and Jedidi Sbouii who ” have been detained for over one month on defamation charges”.
Even the case of Chawki Tabib was evoked.
According to the same source, the authorities have limited Tabib’s movements to walking in his neighborhood. He said they required him to notify them of doctors’ appointments 24 hours in advance and escorted him during a visit: “The scene was very shameful. They treated me as if I was Bin Laden himself.”
As for, Zouhair Makhlouf, and in a statement accorded to Human Rights Watch, he said “I was taken to the Maamoura police station, where an officer asked me to sign a document, but he would not let me read it. The officer cited Saied’s July 25 announcement of the special measures and the appointment of an acting minister of interior.”
