Tunisia struggles to cope with radicalised youth

The Tunisian parliament has voted in favour of changes to a law which will ensure that detainees have a right to an attorney. The legislative revision comes at a time when an increasing crackdown on terrorism has resulted in rising reports of youth arrests accompanied by police brutality, as well as detention and torture. The country continues to struggle with a large number of radicalised youth and, consequently, is trying to respond effectively to this threat.

Arrests and torture

The amendment, which also ensures detainees’ right to have access to a doctor as well as a reduced maximum period of pre-charge detention, comes at a time when there have been several reports of police brutality. Last month, the Organisation Against Torture in Tunisia noted 10 cases where the rights of detainees and prisoners were violated by the authorities.

“Violations are often committed during the arrest process and this is the moment when the detainees are most vulnerable,” explained Human Rights Watch Tunisia researcher Amna Guellali. Whilst praising the legal reform, she expressed concern regarding an exception relating to terrorism charges, for which there is no right to an attorney during the first 48 hours in custody. “It increases the risk of being subjected to torture,” she said.

The Tunisian anti-terrorism law — which was approved near-unanimously by parliament on 25 July in the aftermath of the Sousse attack in June last year, when one man killed 39 people at a beach resort — raised concerns among human rights organisations. They argued that the legislation lacked protection against abusive practices and provided security forces with unclear and vast surveillance capacity.

“It’s worrying that with each terrorist attack there are voices calling for more security,” said Guellali, highlighting the increasingly difficult security environment that has followed since the attack at the Bardo Museum on 18 March last year, leaving 24 dead. After the most recent terrorist attack in Tunis city centre, targeting the presidential security guard and killing 12, President Beji Caid Essebsi imposed a temporary state of emergency and a nightly curfew.

According to a recent Amnesty report at least six people have died in police custody since 2011. The human rights watchdog also highlighted that detainees had experienced torture including electric shocks after being accused of involvement in terrorism. “The rate of arrests increase after each terrorist attack or threat and they have been conducted haphazardly,” lawyer Ghofrane El Hjaij told Tunisia Live. “The accusations are based on suspicion of being a terrorist or being affiliated with banned radical groups like Ansar Al-Shariaa.”

Many cases involve young men. One of them is 20-year-old Beirim from the coastal city of Monastir, where the Ministry of Interior recently reported that 17 individuals with links to a terrorist cell had been arrested. Beirim was accused of plotting an attack against one of the nearby tourist resorts. According to him he was invited to meet a friend at a hotel and suspects that the police were tapping his phone. He was held and questioned for eleven days before being released. The reason behind his surveillance was that his brother, Bilel, left the family home to go to fight in Syria in 2013. In Skype conversations, he sent photos of his participation with Daesh and tried to convince his brother to join the group. Beirim never went; today he is married and has a full-time job.

The many prison sentences and interrogations of the country’s youth may be counterproductive. Throwing the country’s youth behind bars will only further radicalise people, argues Mohamed Iqbel Ben Rejeb, founder of Rescue Association of Tunisians Trapped Abroad; the organisation’s primary purpose is to assist family members of Tunisians who have left for jihad in Syria or Iraq. Even though the stream of young Tunisian jihadists reached its peak in 2012/13 some are still leaving, but now there are also some who want to return home, says Ben Rejeb.

Tunisian youth were the key players behind the revolution that ousted former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali; they marked its five year anniversary by continuing to protest for the same objectives: dignity and jobs. In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated youth unemployment in Tunisia at almost 40 per cent and described the situation as a “true social tragedy that urgently needs to be addressed.” The recent Amnesty report also warned that an increasingly brutal security crackdown may jeopardise the democratic transition and push the country back to the draconian practices which were common during the Ben Ali era.

De-radicalisation vs imprisonment

As far as Bilel’s father is concerned, the answer is to speak to the youth. “It’s in their head,” he argues, challenging the oft cited socio-economic explanation for the widespread phenomenon of youth radicalisation in Tunisia.

Another father, Jouneidi Ayed, lives in a neighbouring district in Monastir; he agrees. His son left to go to Syria after being exposed to the radical influence of an Islamic scholar; the move was not grounded in socio-economic marginalisation. Ayed’s son had a job and money, he explains while sitting in his middle-income living room. After witnessing the terror in Syria his son has had a change of heart and has been able to find refuge in Turkey. Today, though, he is stuck in Istanbul and without a passport he is unable to leave. Any involvement with, or links to, terrorist groups means a prison sentence and Ayed fears what awaits his son back in Tunisia. If he comes home, his future is already destroyed, he believes. “This is his destiny; he is better off in Turkey,” he adds bitterly.

Ayed’s dilemma is not unique. For the young Tunisians who manage to leave the terrorist organisations, returning home is almost impossible. That’s one of the reasons why Ben Rejeb is an advocate of de-radicalisation programmes. Whilst recognising the risks and concluding that they can never be the sole solution, he believes that such programmes should be one strategy to manage Tunisia’s many radicalised youth.