The famous Tunisian cartoonist Tawfiq Omrane was arrested at his home on Thursday September 21 and accused of “harming others through public telecommunications networks” for having published two satirical drawings mocking Ahmed Hachani, the head of the Tunisian government. Placed in police custody, he risks up to two years in prison. The prosecution decided to continue his detention in the evening, according to his lawyer Anas Kaddoussi, who denounced an attack on the right to defense. “He was not informed of his right to a lawyer, we arrived after his interrogation when he had already signed a report. There is a clear procedural flaw,” he denounced in a statement to Le Monde.
The two caricatures in question were published on August 4 and 7 on social networks, a few days after the appointment of Ahmed Hachani as head of government. In a caustic tone, Tawfiq Omrane noted the lack of experience of the new tenant of the Kasbah as well as his restricted prerogatives in the face of Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed. “His arrest is a demonstration of the fact that the regime cannot tolerate satire,” laments the cartoonist -Z-, who has distinguished himself since 2007 with his acerbic caricatures against the Ben Ali regime. “The atmosphere is deleterious, several journalists have already been worried, it is symptomatic of Kaïs Saïed’s authoritarian drift,” he notes.
Member of Cartooning for peace, an international network of committed press cartoonists, Tawfiq Omrane, aka Omrane Cartoons, began his career as a political cartoonist in the early 1980s, under the regime of former president Habib Bourguiba, collaborating with several independent or opposition newspapers. More discreet under the regime of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, he resumed his activity thanks to the 2011 revolution and regularly publishes satirical drawings, notably on his Facebook page. He also illustrated the cover of the book The Tunisian Frankenstein – at the heart of a controversy after its withdrawal from the Tunis Book Fair in May 2023 – with a caricature of Kaïs Saïed in the guise of the creature imagined by Mary Shelley in the early 19th century.
“Absurd, repressive and abusive”
Reacting Thursday evening, the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) strongly condemned this arrest, described as “absurd, repressive and abusive”, and “damaging the image of Tunisia throughout the world”. The SNJT also considered that the political power, and at its head the Tunisian president, was responsible for such practices, “through speeches inciting the repression of opponents and critics qualified as “traitors” and “plotters”, giving the green light to the security forces and the judiciary to monitor free opinions”.
This arrest comes in a context of increased restrictions on individual freedoms and expression. Tunisia fell to 121st place out of 180 in the world press freedom rankings published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on May 3, 2023, on the occasion of World Press Day. In less than a year, several journalists have been accused of “disseminating false information” on the basis of Decree-Law 2022-54.
Promulgated by Kaïs Saïed in September 2022, it punishes with five years in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars (approximately 14,900 euros) any person who “deliberately uses communication networks and information systems to produce, promote, publish or send false information or misleading rumors.” The penalty incurred is up to ten years in prison in the event of defamation against a state official. “With this new decree-law, it is freedom of the press, one of the most important achievements of the democratic revolution, which is now under attack,” RSF deplored.
