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Tunisia extends state of emergency for 3 more months

November 11, 2017 at 11:48 am

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi seen at a press conference at Conference Palace in Tunis, Tunisia on May 10, 2017 [Amine Landoulsi / Anadolu Agency]

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi extended his country’s state of emergency on Friday for three additional months, starting from 12 November, Anadolu has reported. Essebsi said that the decision was taken after discussions with Prime Minister Yousef Al-Shahed and the Speaker of the Parliament, Mohamed Al-Nasser.

The state of emergency has been in place since November 2015. The last time it was extended was last month, for four weeks. Extensions do not need parliamentary approval.

The new extension follows the stabbing to death of a police commander near the Parliament Building in Tunis earlier this month. Police officers now have more powers, especially to ban strikes and gatherings; impose curfews; censor the media and cinema; and search shops day and night without notice.

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Tunisia has been unstable since May 2011. The self-immolation of a young man in the country was the trigger for the Arab Spring. It suffered major terrorist attacks in 2015, including one at the famed Bardo Museum in the capital, where 22 people were killed. An attack by a gunman on a beach hotel near Sousse killed 38 tourists, while 12 were killed in an attack on a bus carrying presidential guards in Tunis.