The recent arrests of two lawyers and two journalists in Tunisia for criticising the situation in the country come amid rising concerns over political and individual freedoms. President Kais Saied seized more powers in 2021 and later signed a decree that outlaws “spreading false news”, which journalists and opposition figures say is used to stifle dissent.
It was 7:45pm in Tunis on Saturday when hooded police officers forcibly arrested lawyer Sonia Dahmani on the premises of the bar association’s headquarters. A FRANCE 24 crew filmed the scene live but the broadcast was abruptly interrupted when officers snatched the camera from its tripod.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Tunis on Sunday to demand the release of imprisoned journalists, activists and opposition figures, and the setting of a date for a new presidential election.
Lawyers went on strike throughout Tunisia on Monday to protest against Dahmani’s arrest. Dozens of lawyers including Mahdi Zagrouba had gathered earlier in front of a court in Tunis, chanting slogans including, “What a shame, the lawyers and the judiciary are under siege.”
Police stormed the bar association's headquarters again later on Monday and arrested Zagrouba, a prominent lawyer known for his opposition to Saied. A live broadcast on the website TUNMEDIA showed videos of broken glass doors and toppled chairs while police arrested him and other lawyers screamed in the background.
“It's a horror scene ... police entered in a showy manner and arrested Zagrouba and dragged him to the ground before some of them returned to smash the door glass,” lawyer Kalthoum Kanou, who was at the scene, told Reuters.
The interior ministry said in a statement on Monday that “the judicial decision against Zagrouba was due to his physical and verbal assault on two policemen today near the courtroom”.
‘What extraordinary country are we talking about?’
According to her lawyers, Dahmani is under investigation for disseminating "false information with the aim of undermining public safety" and "inciting hate speech" under Decree 54, which Saied signed in September 2022.
She was arrested after suggesting that Tunisia is a country where life is not pleasant during a show on the Carthage Plus TV channel. "What extraordinary country are we talking about?" Dahmani said, in a sarcastic tone, in response to a panellist who claimed that migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were seeking to settle in Tunisia.
Dahmani was due to appear before an examining magistrate in Tunis and had taken refuge in the bar association’s headquarters. On the day of her forcible arrest, images of which were repeatedly shown on television, broadcaster Borhen Bsaiss and political commentator Mourad Zghidi were arrested for disseminating "false information ... with the aim of defaming others or harming their reputation", Tunis court spokesperson Mohamed Zitouna told AFP.
A Tunisian judge jailed the two journalists on Wednesday pending further investigation, their lawyers told AFP. They had been placed under a “48-hour detention warrant” on Sunday and told they would have to appear before an examining magistrate after being arrested under Decree 54 for making critical comments, lawyer Ghazi Mrabet said.
Stifling ‘any form of expression’
Dahmani, Bsaiss and Zghidi “are not individuals particularly known to be historical opponents” of the government, political scientist Vincent Geisser, a research fellow at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), said to FRANCE 24. “The authorities are increasingly targeting anyone who expresses anything even remotely ironic, critical or independent of the regime. These actions aim to stifle any form of expression, even what is not necessarily perceived as oppositional or dissident from the outset.”
Saied took office following free elections in 2019 but seized additional powers in July 2021 when he shut down the elected parliament and moved to rule by decree. Since then, the head of state has been extending his grip on the country – including by assuming authority over the judiciary in June 2022 – and attacking any form of criticism or opposition.
By February 2023, several political figures, activists and media figures openly hostile to his regime had been arrested for "plotting against state security". In all, more than 60 people have been prosecuted under Decree 54 since its enactment, according to the National Union of Tunisian Journalists.
The European Union on Tuesday expressed concern over a string of arrests of civil society figures in Tunisia.
"The European Union has followed with concern recent developments in Tunisia, in particular the concomitant arrests of several civil society figures, journalists and political actors," an EU spokeswoman said.
"Freedoms of expression and association, as well as the independence of the judiciary, are guaranteed by the Tunisian Constitution and constitute the basis of our partnership."
‘Ben Ali didn't dare, Kais Saied did’
The Tunisian press did not hide its concern the day after the arrests of Dahmani, Bsaiss and Zghidi. “Ben Ali didn’t dare, Kais Saied did” headlined the website Business News, a reference to the authoritarian regime of ex-president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (in power from 1987 until his overthrow in 2011), and heralded “a new phase in the tug-of-war between government power and its opponents”.
“We are witnessing a turning point as repression accelerates in Tunisia,” Sophie Bessis, a historian specialising in the Maghreb, said to FRANCE 24. “There are presently no signs that this repressive drift will abate.”
The leader of the Islamist opposition party Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi, was arrested on April 17 for having said, according to statements reported by the media, that Tunisia would be threatened with "civil war" if political Islam were eliminated. An interior ministry source cited in the Tunisian media confirmed that Ghannouchi's arrest was linked to these remarks.
Saied's anti-migrant stance is at the heart of this repressive push. The president has attacked associations and NGOs, claiming that they receive "astronomical" funding from abroad to facilitate the settlement of sub-Saharan migrants. He also said that although migrants are "victims of an entire system, Tunisia is not responsible for their misery", as reported by Business News.
The president of the anti-racist association Mnemty (“my dream”), Saadia Mosbah, is in police custody on suspicion of money laundering. She had been particularly active defending sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia after Saied in a February 2023 speech denounced the arrival of "hordes of illegal migrants" as part of a plot "to change the demographic composition" of the country.
Following the virulent speech, tensions escalated between residents of Tunisia and migrants. Authorities have evicted hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from their homes and transported them to desert areas since July 2023.
Read moreMigrants between life and death in Tunisia-Libya desert
Hundreds of residents of El-Amra in the Sfax governorate, unhappy with the presence of “thousands” of sub-Saharan migrants, demonstrated in the streets on May 4 and 5 to demand their "expulsion" as the images broadcast by SkyNews Arabia attest.
"We are witnessing the rise of a militia logic, in which the president encourages the use of popular anger to settle disputes with those he describes as enemies of the homeland," said Geisser.
‘Fear and resignation’
If Tunisia was a symbol of hope in the region, being the only country to overthrow an authoritarian ruler during the 2011 Arab Spring and build a democracy, it is now marked by a climate of fear, according to Geisser.
“The idea that the democratic gains made since 2011 are untouchable is now wrong,” said the political scientist. “Today, people are becoming very cautious about speaking out, whether on social media, in the (traditional) media or even in public spaces. The fear of denunciation and arrest is provoking the return of self-censorship in Tunisian society.”
For him, Saied has successfully created a “political vacuum” in Tunisia “by demonising parliamentary democracy”.
“Fear and resignation prevail among those who might oppose the regime because they don't perceive the democratic opposition as a credible alternative,” he said.
Saied still has support, "particularly among the working and middle classes, who continue to support the president by justifying arrests on the assumption that the accused must have committed reprehensible acts", said Bessis. "Although this support is waning due to the economic and social crises, the head of state's populist rhetoric still has an audience."
Concern over the situation in Tunisia did not prevent the EU last year from inking a major cooperation deal with Tunis aimed at curbing the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.
This article is an updated translation of the original in French.
