This Letter from the Committee is the story of a country adrift, where the rule of law is crumbling daily and justice is being transformed into an instrument of political punishment. It unfolds the story of a Tunisia that is still fighting - sometimes with its body, sometimes with its voice - to refuse to be erased.
It all began with an absolute emergency: the fifth week of the hunger strike led by Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, whose state of health is deteriorating alarmingly. Several political prisoners - Rached Ghannouchi, Issam Chebbi, Ridha Belhaj, Abdelhamid Jlassi, Mehdi Ben Gharbia - have also begun hunger strikes, turning their bodies into the ultimate site of resistance.
How did the authorities react? Denial, threats, then legal action against lawyers who dare to raise the alarm.
At the same time, the Lettre du comité detailed the verdict on appeal in the "conspiracy" trial, conducted under expeditious conditions: defendants absent, surprise hearing, videoconferencing imposed, judges appointed by memo... This trial, far from being an exception, has become the matrix of a system where peaceful activists are convicted for Facebook statuses, where lawyers are prosecuted for defending, and where journalists are hunted down with Decree 54.
This period was also marked by several paroles. That of Sonia Dahmani. Her parole came on the same day as a massive resolution by the European Parliament. It was not a judicial gesture: it was the result of exceptional pressure from both inside and outside the country. That of Samir Bettaieb, a former minister held in detention in an empty case, based on interminable expertise and unfounded suspicions.
Dozens of other political prisoners - activists, trade unionists, lawyers, human rights defenders, blockaders - remain behind bars, sometimes forgotten.
On the bangs of these political affairs, the Lettre du comité devotes an essential section to the ecological revolt in Gabès. 150,000 people in the streets, children poisoned, the sea destroyed, hospitals overwhelmed, the state in complete denial - and, in response, repression, arrests, defamation, then the suspension of NGOs documenting the catastrophe. Gabès is more than a local crisis: it's proof that Tunisian society refuses injustice, be it political, judicial or ecological.
The Lettre du comité documents a regime that systematically extends its grip over the entire political, judicial and social sphere: suspension or dissolution of independent associations (ATFD, FTDES, Nawaat and hundreds of others...); systematic harassment of judges - the Hamadi Rahmani case is the clearest illustration of this; Parliament reduced to a recording chamber; businessmen held to ransom to buy their freedom.
Everything points to the same conclusion: arbitrariness is no longer a tool; it has become the method of government.
This Lettre du comité is more than just a status report. It is a reminder that, even in the midst of suffocation, Tunisia is thinking, writing and resisting.
Jaouhar's struggle, the release of Sonia and Samir, the anger in Gabès, the commitment of lawyers, journalists and associations... all this makes up a landscape of oppression - but also a landscape of courage.
In a country where the truth is criminalized, this Letter from the Committee is living proof that Tunisia has not given up on standing up for itself.
