Covid-19 as an alibi… According to the human rights organization
Human Rights Watch (HRW), the
Tunisia masks “secret detentions” by posing as isolation due to coronavirus.
“The Tunisian authorities are hiding secret detentions under certain house arrest under the pretext of a state of emergency,” said this Wednesday HRW in a press release. The association cites the cases of the former minister of Justice and number two of the Ennahdha party, Noureddine Bhiri, and Fethi Baldi, senior leader of this party, bête noire of President Kais Saied.
“A dangerous escalation”
For HRW, “the excesses in the application” of such an “extrajudicial measure” in the name of an exceptional legislation promulgated under former President Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987) and regularly extended, “have multiplied” since the coup de force of Kais Saied who assumed full powers on July 25 and “testify to a dangerous escalation”.
In #Tunisia, exceptional measures granted by the emergency decree are being used improperly and without judicial oversight, raising the specter of secret detentions. These violations further erode the principles of the rule of law. @SaShellalihttps://t.co/K15gYpWFUf pic.twitter.com/5CU3uwIeU8
— Wenzel Michalski (@WenzelMichalski) February 9, 2022
The NGO denounced at least two other house arrests with arrest and incommunicado detention, justified by the Ministry of the Interior on suspicion of “serious threat to public security”. Both of these subpoenas were lifted a few days later.
Hunger strike
“The exceptional measures granted by the emergency decree are being used in an abusive manner and without judicial control” and “raise the specter of secret detentions,” said Salsabil Chellali, HRW’s Head for Tunisia.
Bhiri and Baldi had been arrested and forcibly taken on 31 January by plainclothes officers to an unknown location. Noureddine Bhiri was hospitalized the next day in Bizerte (north) after his health deteriorated while the exact place of detention of Fethi Baldi remains secret. Noureddine Bhiri, who is on hunger strike and initially refused to take her medication, is being fed and treated via infusions, according to HRW.