In a press release reproduced below, the Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l'Homme en Tunisie (CRLDHT) denounces the prolongation of the detention of political prisoners, likening it to revenge and reprisals.

On December 21, 2023, the examining magistrate of the judicial counter-terrorism unit decided to extend the pre-trial detention period of political figures arrested in the so-called "plot against state security" case.

In February 2023, the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Counter-Terrorism Judicial Pole arrested political leaders including Khayem Turki, Jawhar Ben Mbarek, Ghazi Chaouachi, Ridha Belhaj and Abdelhamid Jelassi, who were imprisoned for six months before their detention was extended for a further four months on December 21, 2023.

The defendants' defense committee and national and international human rights organizations have repeatedly stressed the unfounded nature of the charges brought against these political leaders, the lack of evidence in their cases and the repressive and arbitrary nature of their imprisonment. All these elements point to a vengeance against peaceful opponents who have criticized President Kaïes Saïed's exceptional measures, his arbitrary treatment of the Constitution and his monopoly of power, a vengeance which also aims to cover up his government's failure in the face of the acute economic and social crisis, the shortage of essential goods and soaring prices...

The Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia points out that Kaïes Saïed has openly violated the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence with regard to these detainees, describing them as "terrorists" even before they have been questioned. He also threatened judges, lawyers and activists, declaring that "anyone who seeks to exonerate them is their accomplice".

In recent months, it has become clear that the arrest of these political figures and the relentless persecution of them and their families are part of a campaign targeting other activists from different political parties and orientations, including leaders of the Ennahdha movement, the president of the Parti constitutionnellibreAbir Moussi, Riadh Ben Fadhel, general coordinator of the El Qotb party, as well as businessmen, journalists, bloggers and activists,with the sole aim of silencing any dissenting voices supporting the democratic process initiated during the 2011 revolution and thwarted by the coup de force of July 25, 2021.

We express our total solidarity with the political prisoners and their families and call for their release and that of all prisoners of conscience; we demand an end to the instrumentalization of the judicial system to eliminate political opponents,

We call on all democratic forces in Tunisia and around the world to support all prisoners of conscience in Tunisia and put an end to all the injustices they suffer,

We also call on the judiciary not to give in to the powers that be, who are seeking to transform it from an independent power where the judge abides by the law into an instrument of sanction used by the president to counter his political opponents.