3.2% of Tunisia’s incarcerated population are women. Asma is one of them. In an interview with Nawaat, Asma opens up about the appalling conditions inside women’s prisons. For many inmates, violence, whether socio-economic or psychological, is a fact of their past and present. A study by Beity and Lawyers Without Borders sheds light on their experience in prison and beyond.
Cinema for Prisoners Too, as JCC Film Festival Kicks Off
As Tunisia’s biggest annual film festival, the Carthage Cinema Days (JCC) kicked off on Sunday, October 30, the traditionally desperate search for tickets began. But one group of people received their own private film screening: about 150 prisoners from the Oudhna Civil Prison, including 30 female prisoners who were brought in from the Manouba Women’s Prison facility.
Amending Law 52 on narcotics: A Mixed Track Record
When three young people were recently sentenced to 30 years in prison in accordance with Law 52 on narcotics, it sparked controversy. A debate has reignited over the repressive nature of the law and the fate of drug consumers locked up for smoking a joint. Meanwhile, collectives and associations have come out calling for the depenalization and decriminalization of drug consumption. Their demand is not a new one, but it remains hostage to political procrastination. In 2017, the law was amended to be less restrictive, but has its application followed suit? What changes have taken place since 2017?
Torture in Tunisia: Abdelmajid Jdey, Another Death in Police Custody
Abdelmajid Jdey was being held in preventative detention Sidi Bouzid when, on 13 May, the Ministry of the Interior announced his death; according to the statement, Jdey hung himself in his cell. In the weeks that have followed, civil society activists and organizations including Human Rights Watch and the Tunisian Organization Against Torture (OCTT) have contested the Ministry’s announcement. Notably, the victim had filed a complaint of torture to OCTT several days prior to his death.
Amami and Mlouka Case Dismissed – and Rule of Law Prevails over Police Force
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.
Activist Azyz Amamy and Sabri Ben Mlouka Arrested, Law 52 Polemic Continues
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.
The Martyrs of the Revolution Affair– State Justice at Odds with Public Opinion
Is the ‘Martyrs of the Revolution Affair’ that has inundated Tunisian media over the past week symbolic of an already-failing post-revolutionary justice system? Or does it instead reflect the reappearance of the same sort of political corruption that thrived under old regime? Either way, the gaping division between a recent decision announced by Tunisia’s military tribunal and public opinion has Tunisians up in arms or at least on edge about the political, legal, and moral integrity of the State.
Between criminalization and marginalization, Art remains a counter-movement in Tunisia
Two themes that prevail in blogs, reports, news articles, and interviews about art and artists in Tunisia are the gap between politics and people, especially youth, and the criminalization and marginalization of art and artists that has continued after the revolution.
Authorities urged to drop all charges against detained TV cameraman
Reporters Without Borders, the Tunis Centre for Press Freedom, the National Union of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists and […]
Amnesty International: Tunisia: Blogger jailed for “insulting Islam” must be released
Tunisia should mark its national day of internet freedom on 13 March by releasing immediately and unconditionally 28-year-old blogger Jabeur […]
Tunisia: Routine muzzling of dissent mars upcoming presidential elections
Next Sunday, 25 October 2009, Tunisia will hold presidential and legislative elections in which it is virtually guaranteed that the incumbent, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who has been in power for the last 22 years and is now opposed by three other candidates, will be re-elected as president. As well, the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party is expected to retain a majority of the seats in the parliament.
Tunisie : Le gouvernement devrait mettre fin au bannissement de l’activiste Abdallah Zouari
Les autorités tunisiennes devraient mettre fin au bannissement arbitraire de l’activiste politique et journaliste Abdallah Zouari dans un village isolé, a déclaré Human Rights Watch dans une lettre envoyée aujourd’hui au ministre de la justice Béchir Tekkari et au ministre de l’intérieur Rafeek Belhaj. D’abord imposé dans le cadre d’une sanction judiciaire, l’exil de Zouari […]
Tunisia: Facebook user jailed for spreading rumors liable to disrupt public order
On Saturday, July 4, 2009, The 8th Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Tunis has condemned a Tunisian professor, Dr Khedija Arfaoui, to eight months in prison for spreading rumors, on the social networking website Facebook, liable to disrupt public order.
Iran : Omid Reza Misayafi Has Died in Prison
Our friend Hamid Tehrani has told us that Omid Reza Misayafi has died in prison in Iran. Omid was sentenced […]