Tunisia rights observatory: the people don’t want another police state 

The Observatory of Rights and Freedoms in Tunisia has strongly condemned the ongoing human rights violations in the country that started on 25 July 2021. It accused the law enforcement and security agencies of carrying out verbal and physical violence against peaceful protesters.

In one notable case, the group deplored attacks against journalists who were covering a vigil where protesters were demanding the disclosure of the truth about political assassinations. That attack on journalists was also condemned by the National Union of Tunisian Journalists.

According to a statement issued by the observatory, security forces recently raided the home of prominent lawyer, Lotfi Al-Mergheni, and terrorised his wife and children while he was away after rumours circulated that a lawmaker, Seifeddine Makhlouf, was hiding in his house.

The statement read: “While such abuses did not stop under any of the previous governments that maintained and inherited the policy of perpetuating impunity, today they have taken on a more dangerous character.”

The statement which was signed by the observatory’s President Anouar Awled Ali condemned “the barbaric attack against peaceful protesters and field journalists” and expressed full solidarity with them.

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Additionally, the group alerted “supporters of the coup to the danger of continuing to justify violations of the law and incitement against their opponents or human rights defenders;” and called upon them “to cooperate in order to confront these abuses, regardless of political stances concerning what happened on25 July.”

With regard to the raid on the home of lawyer Lotfi Al-Mergheni, the observatory affirmed that it fell “within a broader policy of attempting to subjugate and bring down the legal profession and the justice system in general.”

The statement held the President of the Republic fully responsible for the violations which resulted from “his exceptional and ambiguous decisions which he refuses to clarify to the people, as stipulated in Article 80 of the Constitution.”

It called on “all components of civil society – regardless of their political positions- to renounce division and cooperate in order to confront the imminent dangers that threaten rights, freedoms, and gains of the revolution in Tunisia.”