The scene is filmed live by France 24. Sonia Dahmani, lawyer and columnist, was arrested manu militari on Saturday, May 11, by the Tunisian security forces, even though she had taken refuge since the day before in the premises of the Bar Association in Tunis. She was the target of online criticism after an ironic comment on the situation in the country and the migration issue on a television set. DThey media columnists were also arrested and placed in detention, Saturday night.
Their fate reinforces fears of an authoritarian turn of the Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, in a country where protest is increasingly systematically repressed. On Sunday, around 300 people gathered in Tunis at the call of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition, to demand the “release of political detainees”. Around forty people, including several FSN officials, are detained for “plot against state security”for some since February 2023. Franceinfo takes stock of the situation.
A lawyer arrested for criticizing the situation in the country
The lawyer arrested in front of the cameras on Saturday was the target of criticism in Tunisia since ironic remarks on the set of a Tunisian television show on Tuesday. In response to another columnist, who claimed that many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were seeking to settle in Tunisia, she pretended to wonder: “What extraordinary country are we talking about?” A judged remark “degrading” for the image of the country by some users on social networks.
Summoned on Friday before an investigating judge, Sonia Dahmani did not respond, explaining to the press that she refused to appear in court “without knowing the reasons for this summons”. Due to his absence, the investigating judge in charge of this case issued a warrant for his arrest.
Sonia Dahmani was arrested Saturday evening while she took refuge at the Lawyer’s House in Tunis. The scene was filmed live by a France 24 team, but the broadcast was interrupted by masked police officers. Chain information strongly protested against the attitude of the hooded police officers, who “then went towards the channel team, telling them to turn off the camera under the strong protests of Maryline Dumas”the correspondent on site.
The cameraman journalist who accompanied him, Hamdi Tlili, “was released after around ten minutes, and the France 24 correspondent is fine”, added the channel. France 24 condemned “firmly this obstruction of press freedom and this brutal and intimidating intervention by the police preventing its journalists from exercising their profession.”
In the demonstration of support on Sunday, colleagues of Sonia Dahmani, interviewed by RFI, believe that she “was the subject of a kidnapping”. “At this time, we do not know where she was taken. Other lawyers were molested and one of the lawyers was injured and transferred to the hospital.”reports a Tunisian lawyer cited by French radio.
Two columnists placed in detention immediately
Borhen Bssais, television and radio presenter, and Mourad Zeghidi, columnist, were in turn arrested on Saturday evening and placed in detention on Sunday, for criticism of the situation in Tunisia. Both are the subject of a committal warrant for disseminating “false information (…) with the aim of defaming others or damaging their reputation”, the spokesperson for the court of Tunis, Mohamed Zitouna.
According to Mourad Zeghidi’s lawyer, his client is being prosecuted “for a publication on social networks in which he supported an arrested journalist [Mohamed Boughalleb, condamné à 6 mois de prison pour diffamation d’une fonctionnaire] and statements on television shows since February”. Borhen Bssais is for his part accused of having “undermined President Kaïs Saïed through radio broadcasts and declarations”his lawyer told AFP.
An anti-racist figure arrested and accused of provoking a wave of migration
While several migrant aid NGOs underwent checks, the president of the Tunisian anti-racist association Mnemty, Saadia Mosbah, was placed in police custody on Monday on suspicion of money laundering. This leading figure in the anti-racist fight in Tunisia was still in detention on Sunday.
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Tunisia is, with Libya, one of the main departure points for illegal emigration to Italy. Thousands of sub-Saharan Africans find themselves blocked by restrictive access policies to Europe.
Of the “campaigns defamatory”accusing Saadia Mosbah and other anti-racist activists of being at the origin of this migratory wave, gained momentum “at the end of 2022, when the Tunisian Nationalist Party, a small group with xenophobic ideas, launched a campaign against the presence of sub-Saharan migrants, relying on far-right theories such as that of the ‘great replacement'”, explain The world.
From February 2023, President Kaïs Saïed took up this ideology, evoking the existence of a “criminal plan to change the demographic composition” of the country and affirming that “some individuals received large sums of money to grant residency to sub-Saharan migrants”, relates daily life. Saadia Mosbah then took to the streets to demonstrate after this violent speech.
On Monday, Kaïs Saïed repeated that his country “will not be a land to settle these people” And “will make sure not to be a crossing point”. He reiterated his accusation that “associations and organizations” receive “astronomical sums from abroad”.
A text on “fake news” used to silence critics
The lawyer and the two columnists arrested on Saturday are being prosecuted under decree-law 54 of September 2022 making the broadcast of “fake news” liable to five years in prison. He is criticized by human rights defenders because it is subject to very broad interpretations. In a year and a half, more than 60 people, including journalists, lawyers and opponents of Kaïs Saïed, have been prosecuted on the basis of this text, according to the National Union of Journalists.
Since the Tunisian president, democratically elected in October 2019 for five years, granted himself full powers through a coup in July 2021, Tunisian and international NGOs have deplored a regression in rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Among the many arrested in recent months is Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the opposition Ennahda party, arrested on April 17 after statements reported by the media, in which he affirmed that Tunisia would be threatened with a “civil war” if political Islam, for which its formation claims, was eliminated. A source at the Ministry of the Interior, cited by Tunisian media, confirmed that the arrest of Rached Ghannouchi was linked to these statements.