Lawyers in Tunisia took to the streets on Thursday, May 16 to protest a string of recent arrests that have convulsed the country over the past week and provoked international outcry.
The demonstration in the North African country’s capital came days after two lawyers were arrested — one brusquely extracted from the bar association headquarters and the other needing to be hospitalized after sustaining injuries while being apprehended by security forces.
Both were charged with violating a cybercrime statute outlawing fake news that authorities have increasingly used to target critics.
The National Bar Association called for nationwide strikes on Monday and staged a “day of anger” on Thursday that included protests and a second day of striking.
Along with activists and civil society groups, they gathered in front of the capital’s courthouse chanting for freedom, in support of their colleagues and against what they called “a police state.”
“We demand an apology from the authorities for the enormous blunders committed,” Bar Association President Hatem Mziou said, referring to the two arrests.
“We are fighting for a democratic climate and respect for freedoms,” Mziou added, threatening further action if authorities do not change course.
Protests about civil rights have been routine since President Kais Saied froze Tunisia’s parliament, consolidated his own power and fired top ministers in July 2021. But the speed and number of arrests this week — of the lawyers as well as journalists and prominent activists — have marked a new phase in his crackdown against dissidents.
The Bar Association said in a statement that Mehdi Zaghrouba, one of the lawyers arrested, was tortured and lost consciousness after being apprehended, leaving visible injuries throughout his body.
The government denied Zaghrouba had been tortured and said that the arrest had been carried out legally and without issue.
“Claiming torture is a way of evading justice” Interior Ministry spokesperson Faker Bouzghaya told IFM radio, a station where a journalist was also arrested this week.
Also the United Nations on Friday denounced arrests of lawyers in Tunisia, saying the detentions, which have also included journalists and political commentators, undermined the rule of law in the North Africa country.
“Reported raids in the past week on the Tunisia Bar Association undermine the rule of law and violate international standards on the protection of the independence and function of lawyers,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva.
“Such actions constitute forms of intimidation and harassment.”
The arrests have sparked condemnations by Tunisia’s civil society and have sparked an international backlash, which Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has slammed as foreign “interference.”
Civil society in the North African country condemned the arrests as a crackdown on dissent in the country that saw the onset of the Arab Spring.
The European Union expressed concern this week over the arrests, while the United States said they contradicted the universal rights guaranteed by the country’s constitution.
Saied, who seized sweeping powers in 2021, on Thursday ordered the foreign ministry to summon ambassadors of several countries and inform them that “Tunisia is an independent state,” in a video released by his office.