Two leading opponents of Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, imprisoned for weeks, were released overnight from Thursday to Friday July 14. Chaïma Issa, a member of the main opposition coalition (FSN), and former minister Lazhar Akremi were among a group of around 20 opponents and business figures arrested since February as part of a investigation for “conspiracy against state security”. The president, Kais Saied, called them “terrorists”, but their lawyers denounced “empty” prosecution files.
When he left, Chaïma Issa, who wore a red T-shirt marked with the word “Free”, said he relished his “happiness to be free”. “But it’s an incomplete happiness”, because “the injustice I suffered still strikes my friends” still imprisoned, she said in front of journalists including Agence France-Presse. “We don’t know why we entered [prison] or why we left,” said Mr. Akremi, whose release was greeted, like that of Ms. Issa, by honking and shouting. applause from about twenty people.
The defense committee, which announced the decision on their release, said it had demanded the release of the other political opponents, but the judge of the Court of Appeal rejected this request.
Before them, on May 24, the boss of Mosaïque FM, Tunisia’s most listened to independent private radio station, Noureddine Boutar, had been released after being imprisoned as part of this investigation, but on condition of payment of bail. one million dinars (about 300,000 euros). He remains prosecuted for conspiracy against state security and money laundering.
Manifestation
A hundred demonstrators and relatives of opponents and detained personalities demonstrated Thursday morning to demand their release, denouncing arrests motivated by “political reasons”.
The campaign of arrests launched since February has targeted prominent political leaders, including DSF co-founder Jaouhar Ben Mbarek and the leader of the Islamo-conservative Ennahda movement, DSF member Rached Ghannouchi.
The NGO Amnesty International denounced a “politically motivated witch hunt”. “The detainees were questioned about meetings and telephone exchanges with foreign diplomats, others about interviews with the media”, according to the NGO.
Several Tunisian and international NGOs have reported a regression of rights and freedoms in the country since the coup by which Mr. Saïed seized full powers in July 2021.