By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) – Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday arbitrary detention was being used to eliminate dissent in Tunisia and called on its government to halt the crackdown and free all detainees, amid a trial of prominent opposition figures on conspiracy charges.
An HRW report reinforced opposition leaders’ concern over what they call the authoritarian rule of President Kais Saied since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree, asserting control over the judiciary.
The opposition described Saied’s move as a coup. He has denied such accusations, vowing he would not become a dictator but rather is trying to rescue the North African country from political chaos and rampant corruption.
The report by New York-based HRW said the Tunis government had turned arbitrary detention into a cornerstone of repressive policy.
“Saied’s government has returned the country to an era of political prisoners, robbing Tunisians of hard-won civil liberties,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at HRW.
Government officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Since 2023 authorities have arrested dozens of prominent political opposition figures as well as journalists, activists, and lawyers in a crackdown critics say has undermined the democracy gained in the 2011 Arab Spring popular uprising.About 40 people including high-profile politicians, business figures and journalists face charges of conspiring against state security. The third session of their trial will be held on Friday. They have all denied wrongdoing.
Saied said in 2023 that the accused were “traitors and terrorists” and that judges who had acquitted them in previous trials were their accomplices.
Most Tunisian political party leaders are in prison including Abir Moussi of the Free Constitutional Party and Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist Ennahda party, two of Saied’s most prominent opponents.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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