Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has been cracking down on political dissent since his energy seize in July 2021. Greater than 20 politicians and dozens of journalists and critics have been rounded up on expenses of “conspiring” in opposition to the state.
Maybe essentially the most uncommon set of accusations up to now has been one which names former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who died just lately on the age of 100.
The anti-corruption message wears skinny
At first, Saied loved well-liked help for his energy seize and ensuing crackdown, with individuals cheering his message of ending corruption, which they assumed would enhance their way of life.
Rights teams warned from the beginning that opponents had been being arrested on trumped-up expenses, and ultimately, individuals began to doubt the credibility of the accusations, based on Tarek Megerisi, an skilled on Tunisia and senior coverage fellow with the European Council on Overseas Relations (ECFR) suppose tank.
“I think that he thinks his charges are believable [for his audience]. They fall in line with his claim that he’s trying to restore the pride of the state and that all the problems in Tunisia are due to international conspiracies against the country,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Here’s a take a look at among the expenses which were introduced in opposition to Saied’s opponents.
Espionage
On January 18, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, a former minister and chief of the opposition Nationwide Salvation Entrance, was accused of soliciting funds from former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who lives in the US.
In line with the costs, Chahed obtained enormous sums of cash from Kissinger and was accused of transferring the cash to Chebbi to undermine the state and sabotage the final native elections.
The December 2023 elections noticed an abysmally low voter turnout, with solely 11 p.c of Tunisia’s 9 million registered voters casting a poll.
The fees are reportedly primarily based on testimony from a present prisoner who claims to have overheard a dialog between two different prisoners about this conspiracy.
In addition they slot in with a broader marketing campaign of arrests that try and smear political opponents as brokers for overseas nations.
In February 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that safety forces arrested opposition figures Khayam Turkey and Abdelhamid Jelassi.
They had been arrested beneath a terrorism regulation and questioned about their contact with foreigners. Turkey was requested about his assembly with US diplomats, whereas Jelassi was interrogated about his relationship with Western researchers.
“That arrest showed that you can’t even talk to the international community any more, or else you are at risk,” Megerisi mentioned.
‘Conspiring against the state and terrorism’
One other frequent accusation in opposition to political opponents is that they’re attempting to undermine the state via “acts of terrorism”. That was the premise of expenses introduced in opposition to secular politician Abir Moussi on October 4.
Moussi is a harsh critic of Saied and a supporter of Tunisia’s late strongman President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled by well-liked protests in 2011.
She was arrested exterior the presidential Carthage Palace and accused of “an attack aimed at changing the government” in addition to “inciting people to arm” with a view to “cause chaos, murder or pillage the country”. Moussi, who faces the dying penalty, started a starvation strike in jail on November 28.
Saied has described Moussi and different political detainees as “traitors, criminals and terrorists”.
“The function [of this charge] is not to show that these groups of people are actually conspiring against the state, but just to have them out of sight and out of mind. It’s about demonstrating power,” mentioned Megerisi.
Corruption
Saied has additionally claimed to be punishing former officers and ministers for looting and exploiting the nation, which resonated with many Tunisians who struggled to earn a livelihood regardless of overthrowing Ben Ali a decade earlier.
On February 12, 2023, former choose of the Courtroom of Cassation, Taieb Rached, was arrested and charged with monetary corruption.
“The fight against corruption should not be instrumentalised for political purposes and should be carried out in compliance with the rule of law,” HRW Tunisia director Salsabil Chellali mentioned on the organisation’s web site about two weeks later.
Final November, authorities arrested Ben Ali’s former son-in-law Marwane Mabrouk and Abderrahim Zouari, transport minister in Ben Ali’s authorities, on related expenses. Critics imagine each tycoons had been focused and their profitable belongings confiscated to fill empty state coffers.
The fees once more appeared politically motivated and a part of a broader marketing campaign to stamp out potential rivals, based on rights teams and critics.
Megerisi believes that the Tunisian public has additionally realised that Saied’s expenses in opposition to opponents are fabricated.
“People don’t buy it,” Megerisi advised Al Jazeera. “But the [charges] are not so outrageous that they will go to the streets and start protesting because they fear that they might be next.”