Outcry as mass trial of Tunisian opponents kicks off

Tunisian President President Kaïs Saïed has dismissed calls for an end to the mass trial of lawyers, diplomats, politicians and journalists, some of whom are barred from attending court despite pressure from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the UN and human rights groups, notes Legalbrief. The mass trial of around 40 prominent opposition figures got underway in Tunisia on Tuesday, in a case that lawyers, relatives and rights groups say is a politically motivated trial. They could face the death penalty if found guilty of charges which include ‘plotting against state security’ and ‘belonging to a terrorist group’, a BBC News report states. Human Rights Watch has labelled it a ‘mockery of a trial’ based on ‘abusive charges’, while the UN recently urged Tunisian authorities to end ‘all forms of persecution of political opponents’. The country's Foreign Ministry said it read the UN's statement with ‘astonishment’ and criticised what it said were ‘inaccuracies’. Campaigners say the trial highlights Saïed's authoritarian control over the judiciary, after dissolving Parliament in 2021 and ruling by decree. Since he was first elected six years ago, the former law professor has rewritten the Constitution to enhance his powers. As the trial began on Tuesday, defence lawyers complained that they were not granted access to the full case file. ‘You can put an end to this madness and absurdity,’ lawyer Abdelaziz Essid told judges in court. Among those on trial are ex-Presidential chief of staff Nadia Akacha, the former leader of the Ennahda opposition party Abdelhamid Jelassi and Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, who was a high-profile critic of the President's 2021 power grab. Some of the defendants, including Akacha, were tried in absentia having already fled the north African country. Among the defendants are people who were arrested two years ago and detained ever since, with Saïed labelling them ‘terrorists’. ‘It is one of the darkest injustices in Tunisia's history,’ said the head of the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights, Bassam Trifi.

Ahead of the start of the mass trial, the ICJ on its website called on the Tunisian authorities to dismiss all charges against the 40 defendants and immediately release Khayam Turki, Jelassi, Issam Chebbi, Mbarek, Ghazi Chaouachi and Ridha Belhaj, whose arbitrary pre-trial detention without valid grounds has lasted over two years. The ICJ says it denounces the egregious violations of their fair trial rights. ‘The documented systematic violations of their rights during the pre-trial phase of the criminal proceedings significantly undermine the whole prosecution and the legitimacy, independence and impartiality of the forthcoming trial.’ The ICJ says by denying the six defendants the right to attend their own trial in person, without imperious public order or national security reasons, the decision further taints the integrity of the judicial process. ‘The prolonged, arbitrary pre-trial detention, the lack of credible evidence, and now, the order prohibiting the six defendants from attending their own trial in person leave no doubt as to the unfairness and the politicised nature of the forthcoming trial,’ said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa programme director.

Full BBC News report

ICJ statement

The move is just the latest crackdown against Saied’s political opponents, reports Al Jazeera. Despite assurances from Saied as recently last week that he had never interfered with the judiciary, the President has been widely accused of the opposite. Tunisian and international human rights groups have previously denounced Saied’s weakening of the judiciary as a check on his power, including the dismissal of judges and dissolution of a body that guaranteed the judiciary’s independence in 2023. Tunisia’s courts also played a critical role in removing nearly all of Saied’s rivals from the running in last year’s Presidential election, jailing several of his rivals in what critics have described as spurious charges and barring them from running for election. Rights groups and international bodies continue to criticise Saied’s actions. Amnesty International has called for an end to politically-motivated prosecutions. At the same time, Tunisia has warm relations with the European Union, centred on Tunis cracking down on migrant and refugee routes into Europe from North Africa. Charges of rolling back the democratic gains of the country’s revolution of 2011 have dogged Saied since his dramatic power grab of July 2021, when he shuttered Parliament and dismissed its Speaker and Prime Minister, according to Al Jazeera. Many of those currently on trial were prominent critics of that process, such as Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, who led both the National Salvation Front and the Citizens Against the Coup group – both formed in protest at Saied’s suspension of Parliament. Ben Mbarek was arrested in a series of raids upon Saied’s critics in February of 2023.

Full Al Jazeera report

Families of the jailed opposition figures are urging international actors to pressure Saied to end the mass trials, reports the New Arab. Some of the defendants, deemed too dangerous to be transported from prison, were barred from appearing in court, among them, 70-year-old Said Ferjani, a former lawmaker. Their lawyers demanded their clients be allowed to appear in person, as did protesters gathered outside. Defendants appearing by video, one lawyer argued, were ‘deprived of the support of their families,’ while the judge had no way of assessing their well-being or the conditions of their detention. In February 2022, Saied dissolved Tunisia's Supreme Judicial Council, the body tasked with ensuring judicial independence, calling it biased and ineffective. He later granted himself broad authority over judicial appointments, tightening his grip on the courts. On 3 March, families of jailed opposition figures turned to the UN themselves, to denounce what they called Saied's persecution of his critics and his discriminatory policies against black migrants. They believe international pressure could force the President to back down.

Full report on the New Arab site