The court based in Arusha, Tanzania, was seized by relatives of opposition activists imprisoned as part of the repression launched by President Kaïs Saïed.
The question of political repression in Tunisia is now before African courts. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), responsible for ensuring that governments’ commitments to protect human rights are respected, took a first decision, Monday August 28, favorable to the cause of four detained opponents. for several months in Tunisian prisons: Rached Ghannouchi, historic leader of the Islamist-inspired Ennahda party, two of its executives, Saïd Ferjani and Noureddine Bhiri, and Ghazi Chaouachi, lawyer and former secretary general of the Attayar party (Democratic Current).
Based in Arusha, Tanzania, the ACHPR ordered Tunisian authorities to “take all measures to remove all barriers that prevent the four detainees, as well as their families, from having access to and communicating with their lawyers and doctors.” choice”, and to provide them with “adequate information and facts relating to the legal and factual basis of [their] detention” . She considers that the detainees are in “imminent danger” and has given the authorities fifteen days to put these measures in place, specifies the provisional order pending a final decision.
The African court was seized in May following a complaint filed by relatives of the prisoners so that it could rule on their detentions. Several of them then went as a delegation to Arusha to plead in favor of political prisoners and ask the ACHPR to demand their release. “We hope that the African Court will make it clear that the systematic trampling of the rights and freedoms of Tunisians by [President] Kaïs Saïed cannot continue with impunity and that he and his accomplices will soon face the consequences of their violations,” Yusra Ghannouchi, the daughter of the leader of Ennahda, then declared in a press release.
“Persecution”
Tunisia is one of the eight states that have ratified the protocol establishing the ACHPR and recognizing its competence “to receive requests introduced directly by NGOs and individuals”. The families of the detainees are seeking support from continental and international institutions in the face of the wave of political repression launched by Kaïs Saïed in recent months. In March, the European Parliament asked the Tunisian authorities for the release of Noureddine Boutar, director of Mosaïque FM radio, and “all other people arbitrarily detained, including journalists, judges, lawyers, political activists and unionists.”
Although some of the twenty or so activists and journalists imprisoned since February have been released, most remain in prison, such as Khayam Turki, Jawhar Ben Mbarek, and Issam Chebbi. Mr. Ghannouchi, 82, former president of the Assembly of People’s Representatives (ARP), was arrested on April 17 and then sentenced on May 15 to one year in prison for an “apology of terrorism”. He is also the subject of prosecution for “conspiracy against state security”, for which he faces the death penalty. These accusations are “unfounded and amount to political persecution,” said Soumaya Ghannouchi, another daughter of the imprisoned leader, in an article in Le Monde in June.
The day after his arrest, the offices of Ennahda, the main opposition force, were closed under the state of emergency in force in the country, and its meetings were banned. Previously, Saïd Ferjani, Noureddine Bhiri, and other leaders of the political party had also been arrested on charges similar to those targeting Mr. Ghannouchi. For more than two years, Kaïs Saïed has assumed full powers and dismantled part of the political institutions inherited from the 2011 revolution through the adoption of a new hyper-presidential Constitution.