Karim Sayari

Summary

Karim Sayari is a young man originally from the Tinja region who died in mysterious circumstances after being subjected to severe violence by a police patrol.

Personal Information

Name: Karim Sayari

Age: 24

Nationality: Tunisian

Incidents of Violation

On August 27, 2022, 24-year-old Karim Sayari was with his friends in the neighborhood near his house when he was pursued by a police patrol in the same area. Subsequently, he was arrested and subjected to physical assault and gas diffusion to immobilize his movement. According to the testimony of the victim’s sister to a media outlet, the police beat Karim on the head with batons and then took him to the National Security Police Station in Menzel Bourguiba when he was unconscious and in critical condition. Later, he was transferred to the Regional Hospital in Menzel Bourguiba in the same critical state, but his health condition deteriorated, and he passed away under mysterious circumstances. The security authorities have kept the events and causes of his death obscured in secrecy. Eventually, the Ministry of Interior published a statement denying any connection between the police force and the death of Karim Sayari. They claimed that the victim’s death was the outcome of him swallowing a quantity of narcotics during his capture. This narrative is a recurrent pattern that the Ministry of Interior has used in previous official explanations in past cases that resemble Karmi’s situation.

Moreover, the police did not stop there. Karim Sayari’s funeral, which took place on August 29, 2022, was marred by the use of tear gas. Security forces even raided neighboring houses, causing residents to suffer from suffocation, and police vehicles surrounded the neighborhood and assaulted the youth attending their friend’s funeral. Furthermore, the police arrested several young people in Tinja in connection with the protests that took place days after the death of Karim Sayari.

Human Rights Violations

What happened to the young man Karim Sayari constitutes a violation of the right to life. Moreover, the physical assault he faced is a form of maltreatment that led to his death, which is an act that amounts to torture. It also violates the right to bodily integrity, which is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the 2022 Tunisian constitution under Article 25, which stipulates, “The State shall protect the dignity of human dignity and bodily integrity, prohibits physical and mental torture, and the crime of torture shall not be subject to a statute of limitations.” These principles are also ensured in various international conventions, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Article 5 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under Article 7, which mandate that no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Sources

This case was documented based on the victim’s testimony to the Nawat Website, as well as a number of videos that recorded the intensity of gas used during the funeral, as well as publications and official statements.