In a press release published Thursday, March 21, 2024, following its meeting on Wednesday, March 20, coinciding with the celebration of the 68th anniversary of the country’s independence, the Council of the Tunisian Bar Association (Onat) denounced the regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Lawyers are subject to excessive restrictions in the exercise of their defense profession, particularly when they have to deal with security units and prison services, said Onat, adding that these arbitrary measures represent a ” regression” of defense rights and legal guarantees for citizens.
The Council of the Order also criticized the “improvisation” that governs the governance of the public justice service, regretting the general climate of fear and intimidation that reigns in the sector as well as the recurrence of flagrant violations of the law.
This press release, whose tone is unusually critical of the power of the President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed and the policy he has pursued since the proclamation of the state of exception on July 25, 2021, was published at the time when several lawyers were being prosecuted for accusations of a political nature, notably Abir Moussi, incarcerated for more than five months, Ridha Belhadj and Ghazi Chaouachi, also in prison for thirteen months, and others are being prosecuted for facts linked to the exercise of their profession, without also mentioning journalists, political activists and civil society activists imprisoned or prosecuted for statements in the media or comments on social networks. These are the facts that the Bar Association refers to when speaking of a general climate of fear.
