Tunisia, Tunisia – Hundreds of black-clad lawyers filled the narrow Ben Bnet Boulevard outside the headquarters of Tunisia's bar association as they protested the arrest of two of their own.
Thursday was the second day of strikes in a dark week for Tunisian civil society, as security forces detained journalists and activists in what human rights groups have characterized as a new crackdown on dissent.
“The machinery of the regime is working very efficiently, which means that it devours anyone who has a critical perspective on the situation… lawyers, journalists, bloggers, citizens or associations,” Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights. (LTDH, Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights).
Ben Amor said President Kais Saied, like populists around the world, sides with those he sees as the people against the elites, encouraging them to blame others for their plight.
“Then, of course, Kais Saied from now until the elections [scheduled for November] “He has a long list of people, associations, parties and journalists whom he will gradually criminalize to always maintain the sympathy of his electoral base,” said Ben Amor.
The purge
Saied, a former law professor elected in 2019, came to power thanks to widespread anger and frustration in Tunisia over politics seen as corrupt and selfish.
After dismissing parliament in July 2021, Saied began rebuilding Tunisia according to his design, ignoring the acute unresolved financial crisis that led to his 2011 revolution. He blamed “international plots against Tunisia,” rewrote the constitution, and purged his critics in politics and the media.
He oversaw the arrest of leaders of the self-styled Ennahdha Muslim Democratic party, including former parliamentary speaker Rached Ghannouchi, as well as the party's archrival Abir Moussi.
He weakened the once vibrant media by introducing Decree 54, which criminalizes the publication or transmission of any information that the State later deems false. And he has fought against the judiciary, restructuring it according to his own design.
Among the crowd protesting Thursday was Lamine Benghazi of Avocats Sans Frontiers.
“The wave of repression we witnessed this week clearly marks a new threshold for Saied and Tunisia,” Benghazi said as crowd noise nearly drowned him out.
“Those sectors of civil society that avoided the repression that followed the [July 2021 events] They now seem to be the main objectives of the authorities. In recent weeks, arrests, raids and investigations by NGOs working for immigrant rights have multiplied.”
The prospects for Tunisian civil society, whose leaders received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, are bleak, he said.
“Our fear is that this repression will spread to other groups, especially those who work for democracy and the rule of law and who criticize the direction Tunisia is taking. It is no coincidence that discussions on the decree governing associations have resumed while civil society is being attacked,” he stated.
Benghazi referred to a law that parliament – now very weakened – has been debating for a long time. If approved, it would force civil society groups to ask authorities for permission to operate, Amnesty International said in October.
They report arrests
The anger was tangible among the protesters in front of the imposing colonial court. Slogans from the 2011 revolution – “The people want to overthrow the regime” – were heard as protesters denounced the treatment of their colleagues.
Sonia Dahmani was arrested at the bar on Saturday by masked police who stormed the building in front of television cameras to arrest her, apparently in connection with a joke she had made about Tunisia on a television program.
Lawyer Mehdi Zagrouba was detained on Monday after an initial nationwide strike by lawyers to protest Dahmani's arrest. Witnesses said police violently re-entered the law school, breaking windows and doors before arresting Zagrouba.
Zagrouba had been with Dahmani during his court appearance that day and was actively involved in the strike. The Ministry of the Interior accused him of verbally and physically attacking the police, which his defense denied.
Video of Zagrouba's overnight arrest shows him being carried away on a stretcher by the bar, and sources told Al Jazeera that a photographer covering the event had his camera confiscated.
On Wednesday, Zagrouba's lawyers told the court that he had been tortured before collapsing and being taken to hospital, forcing the hearing to be postponed.
According to the Tunisian bar association, Zagrouba had “traces of physical violence on different parts of his body, which were examined by the investigating judge, confirming that he had been tortured during his detention.”
“The Tunisian authorities have managed to subordinate the judiciary… and effectively turn the courts and the prosecutor's office into tools of oppression,” Said Benarbia, director of the Middle East-North Africa program at the International Commission of Jurists, told Al Jazeera. .
“By attacking independent lawyers, the authorities are dismantling the remaining pillar on which the fair administration of justice rests…. part of a broader campaign to intimidate and silence the legal profession, one of the last lines of defense against government repression,” he added.
In a statement to local radio, the Interior Ministry denied that Zagrouba had ever been assaulted and threatened to prosecute anyone who shared false information.
Repression after repression
On the same night of Dahmani's arrest, radio and television presenter Borhen Bsaies and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were also arrested under a cybercrime law “against fake news”. Bsaies' lawyer said that adequate evidence had not been presented to show that his client had violated the law.
A judge ruled Wednesday that both would remain detained until May 22 on charges of violating Decree 54.
Bssais and Zeghidi are the latest in a long line of journalists accused of violating Decree 54 or similar charges.
According to Zied Dabbar, president of the National Union of Journalists of Tunisia, at least 60 journalists and commentators have so far been summoned under the law.
Among them is radio host Haythem El Mekki, who is being persecuted after saying in April last year that the Sfax morgue could not cope with the number of refugee bodies it was receiving.
Those found guilty of violating Decree 54 face a fine of 50,000 dinars ($16,000) and a five-year prison sentence. The prison sentence could be doubled to 10 years if the crime involves a public official.
“Tunisian authorities must urgently reverse this major human rights setback,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “They must end this judicial harassment and release all those detained solely for the exercise of their freedom of expression and freedom of association.”
Tunisia is also seeing an influx of sub-Saharan Africans arriving in hopes of catching a ship bound for Europe, and a purge of groups defending them.
On May 6, Saied reiterated accusations, without evidence, to his security council of “plots against Tunisia” related to the presence of sub-Saharan Africans.
On the same day, Saadia Mosbah, president of the anti-racism organization Mnemty (My Dream), and Zied Rouin, coordinator of the Mnemty program, were jailed on charges of “terrorism” and money laundering.
The next day, Human Rights Watch said, the president and vice president of the United Nations partner Tunisian Refugee Council were arrested after inviting Tunisian hotels to bid to house refugees.
This crackdown on their defenders comes as police persecution of the thousands of black refugees and immigrants in Tunisia increases, including their deportation to Libya, as confirmed by Saied.
Mosbah remains in custody. Rouin was released shortly after his arrest.
European support
As Tunisia retreats from the democratic gains of its revolution, it may have lost some of its luster, but its status as a transit point for tens of thousands of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa means it will remain a priority for European politicians They fear the arrivals of “the south” on their coasts.
Far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has visited Tunisia many times, most recently in April, to meet with Saied and discuss how to curb migration in Tunisia before it moves north.
Meloni's enthusiasm for supporting Saied is matched only by that of the European Union, which has made millions of euros in financial aid available to help shore up Tunisia's economy and border security despite rights abuses by the government are well documented.
However, both the EU and the US State Department have expressed concern about these latest purges, with State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel saying the raids are “inconsistent with what we believe are universal rights that They are explicitly guaranteed in the Tunisian Constitution and we have been clear at all levels.”
No mention of any further action has been made.
