In Tunisia, several hundred demonstrators gathered on Sunday at the call of an opposition coalition to President Kaïs Saïed, to demand the release of around twenty opponents, former ministers, businessmen or media. , arrested since early February for “conspiracy against state security”. Amnesty International found these accusations unfounded.
In Tunisia , several hundred people gathered on Sunday, April 9, in the center of the capital at the call of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition to President Kaïs Saïed, to demand the release of around twenty opponents arrested since early February.
Carrying Tunisian flags or placards bearing the image of those imprisoned, around 300 opposition party activists chanted slogans calling for their release in front of the Municipal Theater of Tunis, according to AFP journalists.
During the demonstration, Samir Ben Amor, a Republican Party official, called for a “national dialogue in order to draw up a roadmap to save Tunisia and return to the democratic path”.
Wave of arrests
Since the beginning of February, the authorities have imprisoned more than 20 opponents and personalities including ex-ministers, businessmen and the owner of the most listened to radio station in the country, Radio Mosaïque.
These arrests, denounced by local and international NGOs, targeted leading political figures of the National Salvation Front and its main component, the Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha.
President Kaïs Saïed , who assumed full powers in July 2021, described those arrested as “terrorists”, claiming that they were involved in a “conspiracy against state security”.
Denouncing “a witch hunt”, Amnesty International called on the Tunisian government to “drop the criminal investigation targeting at least 17 people (…) on the basis of unfounded accusations of conspiracy”.
Belgacem Hassen, of the FSN, demanded on Sunday that the “prosecution or justice take over (from the police, editor’s note) and present the charges against the detainees to the Tunisian people”.
Kaïs Saïed’s “no” to the IMF
The demonstrators also evoked the rejection a few days ago by President Kaïs Saïed “of the diktats of the IMF” with which Tunisia has been in talks for months for a rescue plan of 1.9 billion dollars (1, 75 billion euros) .
“The government has been negotiating for a year and a half with the International Monetary Fund and on a single word from the president, all negotiations were cut off, condemning Tunisia to an aggravation of the crisis”, lamented Samir Ben Amor.
Tunisia, which is struggling to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, is plagued by high inflation exceeding 10 %. And without outside help, the State, very indebted, risks, according to the rating agencies, of not being able to repay in the months to come several loans taken out abroad.
