Tunisia detains leading human rights defender as crackdown continues
Prominent Tunisian human rights defender Ayachi Hammami was arrested, one of at least forty who were handed out sentences in the latest crackdown on dissent in the country that birthed the Arab Spring.
Tunis (AP/AFP) - Tunisian police on Tuesday arrested prominent opposition lawyer and longtime human rights defender Ayachi Hammami at his home outside the capital, acting on a five-year prison sentence issued against him last week in a prominent “conspiracy against state security” case, his family said.
Hammami is among at least 40 individuals, including politicians and business figures, who were handed down sentences of between two and 45 years in prison in the same case.
Rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the charges as politically driven and part of a broader systematic effort by President Kais Saied to quash dissent in the country once known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
Hunger strike
After his arrest on Tuesday, Hammami announced in a pre-recorded video published on Facebook that he would begin an open-ended hunger strike until his demands for freedom are met.
“I will turn the cell that Kais Saied would lock me in into a space for struggle as well,” he said. “We are all victims of the oppression of this authority, let’s unite to change these conditions… Unity is the only evident and natural path for the people while faced with tyranny.”
His daughter, Fida Hammami, told AP that her father’s prison sentence was issued by “a court that lost all its independence” during Saied's tenure. The verdict, she added, was the result of “a sham trial based on unfounded charges and riddled with violations of due process and fair trial rights.”
“My father’s arrest is only the latest example in the crackdown on dissent, political opposition and all forms of critical expression in Tunisia,” she said. “He has fought for human rights, justice and democracy all his life, and he will continue to do so from his prison cell.”
She said that her father was joining “dozens of men and women who are only imprisoned because they exercised their human rights, opposed the authoritarian drift in Tunisia, criticized the regime’s policies or worked to defend the most vulnerable.”
“They all deserve freedom,” she said. “He was steadfast and smiling until the end. He left us with a message of strength and inspiration, and nothing will change that.”
Big sweep of verdicts
Hammami was among a broader group sentenced last week in verdicts issued by the Tunis Court of Appeal. Those decisions also led to the arrest of opposition figure and National Salvation Front leader Chaima Issa, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Issa was seized by plainclothes officers and forced into an unmarked civilian vehicle as she was going home after taking part in an opposition protest on Saturday. She has since announced she is beginning a hunger strike to protest the circumstances of her arrest.
Saied and his government rejected accusations that the proceedings are politically motivated, stating on multiple occasions that prosecutions are a necessary step to safeguard the state from what they describe as serious national security threats and alleged plots to destabilize the country.
EU parliament solutions put away as "blatant interference"
The continuing crackdown against critics has prompted the EU parliament to issue a resolution on human rights calling for release of his critics.
The resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority, called for the release of Sonia Dahmani, a lawyer and popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison Thursday but remained under judicial supervision. It also demanded the release of "all those detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression, including political prisoners and human rights defenders" in Tunisia. It was condemned by Tunisian President Kais Saied as "blatant interference in our affairs".
Saied's condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU's ambassador for "failing to respect diplomatic rules" in the North African country.
Continuing rollback on freedoms
Saied was elected in 2019 after Tunisia emerged as the only democracy to come out of the Arab Spring. In 2021, he staged a sweeping power grab, and human rights groups have since warned of a rollback on freedoms.
Dozens of Saied's critics are currently being prosecuted or held behind bars, mostly on the basis of a law enacted in 2022 which prohibits "spreading false news".