On 2 June 2022, three police officers in civilian clothes knocked on my door in the Bab Souika neighborhood of Tunis, and asked me to follow them to the local police station without providing any reason. Upon my arrival at the station, my Indian passport and the temporary residence permit (carte de séjour provisoire) that I had carried with me were taken away. I was informed that the subject of my summons was a tweet I had published the day before.
“There is no government, there is no state, we are the state”. These chilling words by a police officer, during a sit-in in the city of Sfax on 2 February, speak volumes about the dangerous turn of events in Tunisia in recent weeks. The latest unrest heightens risks of a return to a police state following years of shaky democratic transition which has failed to end abuses by security services and their rampant impunity for human rights violations.
In the minutes and hours following attack transpired the ungracious diffusion on Instagram and Twitter of victims lying lifeless between beach chairs and parasols; dramatized headlines announcing the “beach resort massacre” and innumerable variations recounting the scene … But after the initial shock of and Western media’s knee-jerk reaction to one of three attacks which occurred on June 26, mainstream news reports on terrorism in the country are relatively more substantial and worth contemplating than was the case several months ago.
It is perhaps owing to the urgency of his message, the grave threats that political instability in Libya and regional terrorism pose to Tunisia’s political climate in these next three months, the potential dissipation of a democratic alliance in the MENA region, the very straightforward request for military training and equipment, and more specifically twelve Black Hawk helicopters, that Marzouki’s appeal has been so widely diffused across US and international media outlets.
What is pertinent to note is that Marzouki’s request is the precipitous disbursal of materials that the US has already promised Tunisia.
Lawyers, academics, politicians, civil society, more than one-hundred fifty organizations, Tunisians and internationals were part of the movement to FreeAzyz Amami and Sabri Ben Mlouka: democratic transition demands that the misuse of judicial power inherent in police state be replaced by the precedence of an independent justice.
Thirty-one year old blogger and activist Aziz Amami was arrested yesterday, May 12, 2014 in La Goulette, a beachside neighborhood of the capital. Some time between ten and eleven o’clock Monday night, Amami and his friend, photographer Sabri Ben Mlouka, were purportedly pulled over and detained for the possession and consumption of marijuana.
Human Rights Watch : (Tunis, September 13, 2013) – Tunisian authorities should quash the detention of a prominent activist and […]
Tunisia: Protesters Describe Teargas Attacks, Beatings Protect the Right to Peaceful Protest (Tunis, July 29, 2013) – The police violence […]
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT Date: 9 April 2013 AI Index: MDE 30/004/2013 Tunisia: One year on, no accountability for repressed […]
The week promised to shake up considerably the political landscape in Tunisia. Contrary to the expectations of most observers, the long awaited cabinet reshuffle announcement was delayed due to the lack of consensus among the leading troika as announced Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali on Saturday. The new-born troika of the opposition (Nidaa Tounes, Republican Party al Massar) went almost unnoticed since the Popular Front (a unified political alliance of left-wing parties) seems to be still reluctant to join the new political and electoral front.
Dimanche soir une centaine de migrants ont quitté le camp de Choucha pour venir manifester à Tunis. Ils sont arrivés lundi matin et se sont dirigés vers la Place des Droits de l’Homme où ils ont commencé à manifester.
The Tunisian Network for a Successful society (TUNESS) – www.tuness.org – has organized with the kind support of Columbia Society of International Law (CSIL) a round table discussion on the topic of police torture in Tunisia on Saturday December 1st, 2012 at Columbia University. Three distinguished guest speakers participated in this event.
To the outside world Tunisia, the small country that inspired the Arab world to revolt, is moving towards a substantive democracy. Protestors, from all walks of life, took to the streets of Tunisia and shouted with one voice” the people demand the fall of the regime”. Although the demands were crystal clear “jobs, freedom and dignity”, the current troika government – a coalition government formed by Ennahda after October 2011 elections- has been virtually paralyzed to concretize those demands.
Anis Mrabti, (aka Volcanis le Roi), a 27 year old Tunisian Rapper has been arrested on Wednesday january 25, 2012 around 2 pm at his home in El Mourouj neighborhood in Tunis. According to his parents, 6 allegedly plain-clothes police officers broke into the house without showing their police badges or any warrant and asked the young Anis, who was at that time behind his computer, if he was the rapper behind the song “Shay Ma Tbaddel” (Nothing has Changed). When he confirmed, they took him and confiscated his computer and MP3 players without giving any further details to Anis’ parents who were choked by this brutal arrest.
The transitional government of Tunisia should make it an urgent priority to investigate the killings of demonstrators by Tunisian security forces in early January 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces used excessive force in suppressing demonstrations in the central western cities of Kasserine and Tala, Human Rights Watch said, killing at least 21 people with live ammunition in these two cities alone between January 8 and 12, Human Rights Watch found.
Activist and blogger Slim Amamou was arrested today, January 6, around 1pm. At this time, his friends and colleagues have […]
Khaled Said is not the first Egyptian whom police allegedly beat to death. But his death has sparked a virtual […]
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) “strongly resented” Tunisia’s use of security in raiding the house of opposition […]
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