TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Hooded police raided Tunisia’s bar affiliation headquarters and arrested a attorney as government escalated a wide executive crackdown that has ensnared political dissidents, non-governmental organizations and Black migrants.
Sonia Dahmani, a distinguished critic of the federal government, used to be arrested Saturday after making sarcastic remarks about Tunisia on an area tv program final week and charged with distributing false data and disrupting public order.
She’s the most recent dissident to be charged below the rustic’s debatable Decree 54, an anti-fake information legislation that the federal government has used to pursue critics of President Kais Saied.
The Tunisian Attorneys Council referred to as on Sunday for a national basic strike to be held through all attorneys.
Dahmani’s advocates had collected on the bar affiliation Saturday to protest a warrant for her arrest when police stormed the construction. French tv journalists broadcast the development live to tell the tale air.
The bar affiliation has lengthy carried “symbolic energy” in Tunisia, such a lot in order that government didn’t input its doorways below its pre-Arab Spring dictator, Fadoua Braham, a Tunisian attorney, informed The Related Press.
“Nowadays we’re seeing hooded folks the use of power and doing away with a attorney through power as a result of, moderately merely, a question of opinion,” she stated, noting that those that arrested Dahmani weren’t obviously identifiable as legislation enforcement officials, in line with the French tv photos.
Different civil society organizations expressed worry and stated the arrest contributed to an ongoing crackdown on human rights defenders, activists, reporters and opposition leaders.
The Tunisian Basic Labour Union, the rustic’s maximum robust staff’ crew, joined different civil society organizations, activists and attorneys on the bar affiliation headquarters on Sunday.
The gang stated it “strongly condemns this blatant and unparalleled assault at the Tunisian criminal occupation and considers it one of the most preludes to setting up a state of violations and tyranny, particularly because it got here after a wave of incitement, promotion of hate speech, department and treason.”
The arrest used to be the most recent to spark outrage and condemnation from human rights defenders in Tunisia. It got here lower than per week after Saadia Mosbah, a Black Tunisian activist identified for her advocacy on behalf of African migrants used to be arrested and charged with cash laundering. Mosbah used to be a well known critic Saied’s inflammatory rhetoric in opposition to migrants.
Government on Saturday night time additionally arrested tv and radio presenter Borhen Bssais and columnist Mourad Zeghidi after each criticized the location creating within the nation.
apnews.com
