TUNIS, TUNISIA –Around 100 protesters rallied in Tunisia’s capital on Thursday to demand freedom for detained critics of President Kais Saied who has ruled largely by decree for the past two years.
The demonstrators, including detainees’ relatives, gathered outside the Court of Appeal in Tunis to protest the continued detention of 20 high-profile political, business and media figures on charges of “conspiracy against state security”, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
President Saied, who launched a power grab in July 2021 before going on to effectively rule by decree, has described the jailed figures as “terrorists”.
Speaking to AFP, Imed Khemiri, the spokesperson for the Islamist-inspired opposition Ennahdha party, denounced the arrests as “political”.
Ennahdha was the largest party in parliament before Saied suspended the chamber in July 2021 before dissolving it.
These imprisonments “reflect a suffocating political crisis in Tunisia” but they “cannot silence free voices”, added Khemiri, whose party belongs to the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition.
Abdelaziz Chebbi, the son of the 65-year-old jailed FSN leader Issam Chebbi, also denounced the arrests.
“My father is paying the price for his love for Tunisia,” he said, his voice choking with emotion.
“The judiciary is at the orders of the executive power and not independent.”
Issam Chebbi was a fierce opponent of late dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted in 2011 in Tunisia’s revolt that kicked off the Arab Spring uprisings.
In addition to the political crisis triggered by Saied’s power grab, Tunisia has been shaken by a serious financial crisis and is in search of foreign aid.
On Wednesday, European parliamentarians expressed their opposition to any “unconditional agreement” between the European Union and Tunisia, citing “the excesses” of Saied.
They called on the Tunisian authorities to “release arbitrarily imprisoned opponents, defend the rights of Tunisian citizens and support their struggle for democracy”.