For the report, click here: Behind Walls
Tunis, July 28, 2023
Intersection Association for Rights and Freedoms issued a report entitled “Behind the Walls” on the prison situation of political prisoners in Tunisia and the violations committed against them during their stay in prison. The report focuses on monitoring several violations against political prisoners through the conditions of their stay and the treatment they receive inside the prison. This is since the date of their arrest in February 2023, when Tunisia witnessed a widespread arrest campaign targeting opponents of President Kais Saied, in addition to several former state officials and parliamentarians in the dissolved Chamber of People’s Deputies on March 30, 2022. Among them are the eight political leaders who were accused in what was known in the media as the conspiracy case, some of whom have spent more than 160 days in prison without trial.
This report refers to the health violations to which many prisoners who were arrested based on their political activity or their status as former officials in the Tunisian state are exposed, in addition to what the policies of the Tunisian state represent in dealing with them, as they are opponents of the system of President Kais Saied and his decisions that he took on July 25, 2021. From another angle, this report sheds light on the extent of discrimination to which political prisoners are subjected inside detention centers by the authorities, with the violation of most of their rights as detainees against whom no final judgments have been issued to sentence them to prison.
The report begins with the international principles and rules governing the rights of detainees, then monitors the violations that have affected some political prisoners, such as the means of transportation used to transport prisoners from the prison building to the courthouse or the hospital and its impact on the psychological and health condition of the prisoners. Then, the political situation of Essam Chabbi, which deteriorated due to food rations, as well as the case of Jawhar Ben Mubarak, followed by the case of the isolated judge Bashir Al-Akrami and the conditions of his accommodation in the psychiatric hospital. Also, the case of the politician Sahbi Atig and the need for medical care that he deserves given his deteriorating health condition after more than 50 days of hunger strike.
The report concludes with recommendations that Intersection Association for Rights and Freedoms directs to decision-makers in Tunisia. These recommendations are summarized by demanding the guarantee of the rights of all prisoners and individuals detained inside the prison who have not yet been convicted, including political prisoners, while guaranteeing the right to health for all prisoners and not exposing their physical or psychological safety to danger. In addition to demanding that the prison administration deal with all inmates inside the prison without discrimination and respect their rights stipulated by law and protected by international and local charters. With an emphasis on calling on the judiciary to release the rest of the detainees in political cases and cases of opinion and to turn to negative freedom penalties as the last possible solution to cut off arbitrary arrests.
For the report, click here: Behind Walls