PREVIEW
Having spent €1 billion on a cash for migrant control deal, the EU downplays the galloping authoritarianism in Tunis
The crackdown against opposition to President Kaïs Saïed’s regime is intensifying with over a dozen politicians and activists being jailed for between 18 and 66 years on treason charges.
Last week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch documented 22 politicians, journalists and activists, who had been detained on charges, including terrorism, in connection with their public statements or political activities. Some of them were jailed on 19 April as part of a prosecution of 40 people in a trial that started in March. More than 20 have fled Tunisia since being charged.
On 25 April, thousands of Tunisians protested in the capital against the draconian sentences and called for Saïed’s immediate exit. Holding up photographs of imprisoned activists, journalists and lawyers, the demonstrators accused Saïed of controlling the courts since he sacked dozens of judges in 2022.
Businessman Kamel Ltaif received the stiffest sentence of 66 years while Khyam Turki, a former member of the Ettakatol party who then founded a think-tank, received a 48-year sentence (Dispatches 28/2/23, AU calls President Saïed's complaints about African migrations 'racialised hate speech'). Ghazi Chaouachi, the leader of at-Tayyār ad-Dīmuqrāṭī (Democratic Current), Issam Chebbi, head of the Republican Party, Jawahar Ben Mbrak and Ridha Belhaj all received 18-year sentences. They have been in custody since being detained in 2023 (Dispatches 16/7/24, Saïed clears the field of challengers). Lawyers for the defendants have likened the prosecutions to ‘show trials’, with the rulings prepared weeks ago.
The crackdown has attracted little attention from western governments. The French Foreign Ministry referred to ‘harsh sentences,’ adding that ‘we regret the failure to respect fair trial conditions.’ Yet the European Union, with whom Saïed has a €1 billion ‘cash for migrant control’ agreement, on 16 April proposed to designate Tunisia as a ‘safe country’ for migrants, arguing that ‘the population of Tunisia does not, in general, face persecution or real risk of serious harm’.
Among the defendants was Kamel Guizani, former head of the Directorate General of National Security. Upon the arrest in 2023, President Saïed described the politicians as ‘traitors and terrorists’ and said that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.
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