Omar Labidi

Summary

Omar Labidi, a young Tunisian, lost his life by drowning in the Oued Meliane river in Radès after being violently chased by police officers following a confrontation with Club Africain supporters in 2018 inside and outside the Hammadi Agrebi Stadium in Radès.

His death constitutes a violation of the right to life and of freedom of peaceful assembly, and reveals the State's failure to meet its international obligations to protect citizens' rights. The violation continued after his death through the prolongation of the judicial proceedings, the release of the accused, and lenient judicial sentences that in practice entrenched impunity.

Personal Information

Name: Omar Labidi
Nationality: Tunisian
Age: 18
Status: Club Africain supporter

Incidents of Violation

On 31 March 2018, following scuffles that broke out inside the Radès stadium between police officers and Club Africain supporters during the team's match against Olympique de Médenine, the security forces intervened violently to clear the stadium, and the operation turned into pursuits in the surrounding area. During these pursuits, a group of Club Africain supporters were chased towards Oued Meliane, a river known for its danger and strong currents, which posed a serious risk of drowning. Among them was young Omar Labidi, who ran towards the river and jumped into it for fear of being arrested and beaten by the security officers. He remained struggling in the muddy water calling for help, and a police officer looked down at him and refused to rescue him as he fought for his life, telling him, according to the account of his friends who were there: "Learn to swim." Omar died the same day.

From the very first moment, the handling of the case was marked by attempts to obscure responsibility and to minimise the seriousness of the acts committed, which was reflected in judicial proceedings that suffered systematic obstruction, including the gradual release of the accused and repeated postponements of hearings, in a clear blow to the right of the deceased's family to truth and justice.

On 14 May 2018, the investigating judge at the Court of First Instance of Ben Arous opened a judicial investigation under which 17 security officers were charged with manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger. However, this process soon took a backward turn: on 31 January 2019, one of the accused was released.

In a later development, on 4 December 2021, 14 security officers were referred, while at liberty, to the Court of First Instance of Ben Arous.

13 January 2022 was set as the date of the first public hearing in the case, but it was postponed, before a hearing was held on 31 March 2022, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of Omar Labidi's death, amid widespread protests expressing public anger at the slowness of justice and at judicial proceedings that appeared biased in favour of the perpetrators of the violation.

On 3 November 2022, the court convicted 12 security officers of manslaughter and sentenced them to two years in prison, while dismissing the case against two other police officers. This judgment represented a lenient legal characterisation that was disproportionate to the gravity of the crime and to the officers' responsibility for directly causing the death of young Omar Labidi, which led his family and the defence team to appeal, calling for a harsher sentence that would uphold the principle of no impunity.

However, on 12 July 2024 the Court of Appeal went in a different direction, deciding to reduce the sentence to one year suspended, a decision that constituted a new setback for the course of justice and entrenched the general feeling that the judiciary is lenient towards crimes of police violence.

Finally, on 27 January 2026, the Court of Cassation upheld the appeal judgment, confirming a one-year suspended prison sentence against 12 police officers, thereby closing a case that was not merely an accidental death but a case of grave violation of the right to life, which became a glaring symbol of the failure of justice and of the inability of the judicial system to hold accountable the agents of the Ministry of the Interior involved in killing citizens.

Human Rights Violations

The case of Omar Labidi constitutes a flagrant and compound violation of human rights, as the violations were not limited to the moment his life was taken, but began before that and continued after his death. At a first stage, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly was violated through the violent security intervention against football supporters inside and around the Radès stadium, accompanied by beatings, assaults and pursuits, in the absence of any legal justification for the excessive use of force.

It did not stop there: the violation reached its peak with the infringement of the right to life, when young Omar Labidi was chased to the Oued Meliane river in Radès, despite the danger of the location and the officers' awareness of the direct threat to life it posed, and when they refused to rescue him after he fell into the river despite his calls for help, in a gross breach of the duty to protect persons under their authority. These acts also fall within the crime of failure to assist a person in danger, and these facts formed an interconnected chain of violations that ended with the death of Omar Labidi.

The violations continued after his death, through the denial of his and his family's right to truth and justice, by prolonging the judicial proceedings, gradually releasing the accused and adopting a lenient legal characterisation of the facts that does not reflect the gravity of the act committed, culminating in judicial rulings that in practice entrenched the perpetrators' impunity. This undermines society's confidence in justice and entrenches a climate of unaccountability in cases of police violence and grave human rights violations.

In light of these facts, the case of Omar Labidi is an example of grave and multiple violations that engage the State's responsibility for failing to meet its international obligations to protect fundamental rights, first and foremost the right to life, the regulation of the use of force, and the guarantee of accountability and non-impunity.

In terms of international standards, the facts involved a breach of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly guaranteed under Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as a result of the violent security intervention inside and around the Radès stadium, where force was used without strict adherence to the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality. These principles are among the foundations for regulating the use of force by law enforcement officials, as enshrined in the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms.

This violation developed into a grave attack on the right to life, guaranteed under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, when young Omar Labidi was chased into the area of the Oued Meliane river in Radès, despite the risks the site posed to physical safety and life. These facts constitute a clear breach of the State's positive obligation to protect the lives of individuals under its authority and to ensure that its agents refrain from exposing them to risks that may lead to death.

In addition, the judicial proceedings in the case reveal a clear violation of the right to an effective remedy provided for in Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, through the prolongation of the proceedings and a lenient legal characterisation of the facts disproportionate to the gravity of the violation, culminating in judgments that did not ensure real and effective accountability for those responsible for the death. This situation in practice entrenches the phenomenon of impunity, contrary to the State's obligations to guarantee non-repetition of violations and reparation for victims.

Accordingly, what happened in the case of Omar Labidi is not an isolated incident, but reflects a systematic failure to uphold the guarantees protecting the right to life, the rules regulating the use of force, and the security policies adopted in dealing with football supporters and restricting their right to attend stadiums and to assemble peacefully, as well as a failure of the State's duty to provide effective judicial remedies.