TUNIS —
Tunisian authorities are using emergency laws to place people in “secret
detention”,
Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, warning that the practice was
becoming ever more common under President Kais Saied.
اضافة اعلان
“The Tunisian
authorities are using what they are calling assigned residences to conceal
secret detentions on the pretext of a state of emergency,” the rights group
said in a statement.
“Assigned
residences were already common under former president Beji Caid Essebsi. But
abuses under this extrajudicial measure have increased since President
Kais Saied granted himself extraordinary powers,” the group said.
Saied on July 25
last year sacked the government, froze parliament and seized wide-ranging
authority, later moving to rule by decree.
On Saturday, he
said he would dissolve a key judicial watchdog.
HRW urged the
authorities to “immediately” end arbitrary detentions “or use the legal, fully
transparent route to allow for a judicial challenge”.
It cited the cases
of former justice minister
Noureddine Bhiri and former interior ministry
official Fathi Baldi, both members of Saied’s nemesis, the Islamist-inspired
Ennahdha party.
“More than a month
after their arrest, neither Baldi nor Bhiri have received any written
notification of their assigned residence,” nor of an arrest warrant or formal
charge, the rights group said.
“Failure to reveal
a person’s place of detention is an alarming step toward a lawless state and is
in no way justified by the state of emergency that has repeatedly been extended
since 2015,” said Salsabil Chellali, the group’s Tunisia head.
The two former
officials were arrested by plainclothes police officers on December 31 and
later accused of possible “terrorism” offences.
HRW said Baldi was
being held in a secret location and that his lawyers had still not been able to
meet him, despite several requests.
Bhiri has been on
hunger strike since he was detained, and his wife told HRW he was receiving
food via drip.
His defense team
said Wednesday that his deteriorating health meant he was no longer able to receive
medicine via transfusion.
In a statement, his
lawyers also said Interior Minister
Taoufik Charfeddine would be held
“criminally responsible” if Bhiri died.
Tunisia’s anti-torture commission, the INPT, says the men
are only allowed visits by family members, under police supervision.
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