As the regime is increasingly exposed by the massive protests in Gabès, its fiasco and its lies, Kaïs Saïed continues to commit human rights violations in a headlong rush, supported by the suspicious silence of the Europeans - in violation of Article 2 of the Association Agreement between Tunisia and the European Union.

In his war against associations, following the criminalization of solidarity with migrants and the judicial harassment of numerous activists, Kaïs Saïed has taken things a step further with a wave of provisional suspensions of activities affecting more than one association already harassed bureaucratically and by various brigades acting in the name of "verification and control". We're talking about hundreds of associations, in the absence of official statistics and communication from the majority of them.

Although ordered by the courts of first instance, the impartiality and instrumentalization of the judiciary are no longer to be proven - de facto or de jure. The suspension of associations that "anger" - such as AFTD, FTDES, Nawaat, OMCTsection Tunisie... - or that are not in the service of the regime, for 30 days as provided for in Article 45 of Decree-Law 88/2011 (curiously still in force), presages requests for dissolution that will soon be pronounced by these same courts. The public space will soon be completely deserted.

Its front against journalists also remains open, with sham trials in which the chambers echo the instructions received, without even hearing the people concerned. Sonia Dahmani, for example, is still being brought before the criminal division of the Tunis court of first instance to answer charges based on the disastrous decree-law 54/2022. This is also the case for Mohamed Boughaleb, who will soon appear before the Court of Appeal, as well as Mourad Zghidi, awaiting a hearing before the indictment chamber, and Borhène Bsaïs, not forgetting Chadha Haj Mbarek.

The trial of Me Ahmed Souab was also a real scandal: in seven minutes, without the presence of the interested party or the defense pleadings on the merits, and despite the opposition of the President of the Bar Association, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and three years' administrative supervision.

The trials of the so-called "conspiracies against State security" are also continuing, with the first appeal hearing suddenly set for two days after the Gabès protests, without respect for procedural standards or the principle of judicial integrity, and without the defendants being present - prompting a protest from the President of the National Bar Association, who announced a boycott of the hearing by the lawyers. The case was postponed until November 17, 2025, with no hope of a fair hearing, just like the other so-called "conspiracy" cases under appeal or at first instance - notably that of Ms. Sihem Ben Sedrine, ex-president of the Truth and Dignity Commission, brought before the Tunis Court of First Instance on charges designed to undermine the transitional justice process. This process, frozen by the current authorities, represents a veritable counter-revolution.

In parallel with the repression of human rights defenders and journalists, the regime is relentlessly pursuing Ennahdha party officials and cadres, as well as personalities perceived to be close to the Islamist movement. Rached Ghannouchi, 85, Chairman of Ennahdha and former Speaker of Parliament, has been arbitrarily detained since April 2023 and convicted in several fabricated political cases. Several former ministers and party cadres - Ali Laârayedh, Noureddine Bhiri, Habib Ellouz and others - face endless prosecution on baseless charges of "conspiracy" or "terrorism". Their families, meanwhile, are subjected to constant harassment and smear campaigns by media outlets loyal to the government.

Lawyer and president of the Destourien Libre (PDL) party, Abir Moussi, is also the target of a veritable judicial relentlessness. From trial to trial, she remains illegally detained according to her defense team, and arbitrarily detained according to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which made the same assessment of the former public prosecutor, Bechir Akremi.

This repression, which today affects the entire political spectrum - from Islamists to democrats, from trade unionists to journalists - confirms the totalitarian nature of the regime and its determination to wipe out all forms of opposition. The hunger strike started by Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, and joined by Issam Chebbi and Rached Ghannouchi as a sign of solidarity, illustrates the extreme despair of political prisoners in the face of the injustice inflicted on them.

At the same time, the Jemmali affair, like the judicial and police hounding of associations involved in solidarity with sub-Saharan migrants, reveals another facet of this authoritarian drift: the criminalization of solidarity and the stigmatization of those who defend human dignity.

The inaction of prison authorities in the face of these hunger strikes is indicative of a deliberate indifference to the fate of prisoners in Tunisian jails, where several cases of suspicious death have been documented. Whether it's a question of torture or medical negligence, impunity for those responsible also remains systematic - and systemic.

As for the ecological disaster in Gabès, it remains unanswered: all Kaïs Saïed's detour and language have not succeeded in demobilizing the inhabitants of Gabès who, far from being manipulated or politicized as the bellicose presidential discourse claims, are simply asking to survive in a dignified environment.

A new trend is emerging: provisional release on bail for certain businessmen - record amounts for Ahmed Abdelkefi and Amara Makhloufi - which are more akin to ransoms, especially as it turns out that the gang led by Me Atika Chebil - Kaies Saied's sister-in-law - is at work. Obviously, these are not real sureties: the case cannot be dismissed.

Beyond the individual cases, obviously victims of this odious blackmail, the question arises in a more general way: by acting in this way, Kaïs Saïed is establishing a segregation between citizens capable of giving in to this blackmail - by paying ransoms of several million dinars - and the majority of the people, who are becoming poorer and poorer, even though he claims to defend the cause of the most deprived, whom he never ceases to oppose, in his diatribes, to the most well-off, who are by definition corrupt and swindlers.

The Prime Minister has just added a surreal layer to this by asserting before parliament (following an 11% turnout) that the Tunisian dinar is the strongest currency in Africa, that the economy is doing well and that inflation is a thing of the past. In any case, institutionally, she answers only to the President of the Republic - even more lunar than she is.

Tunisia is no longer a republic: it's one big gallows, where President Kaïs Saïed and his henchmen hang anything that displeases or frightens them.

The CRLDHTstrongly condemns :

• The continuum of human rights violations against Tunisians and the destruction of the principles of the rule of law;
• The perversion of rights and the state in favor of an anarchic and unrealistic project;
• The instrumentalization of justice and the state security apparatus;
• The failure of the authorities to address the critical health situation of Jawhar Ben Mbarek and Issam Chebbi and other detainees deprived of adequate medical treatment;
• The mafia-like actions and blackmail suffered by businessmen;
• Criminal inaction in the face of the environmental demands of the people of Gabès, in particular the hasty dismantling of polluting units.

Calls for the mobilization and adoption of all forms of civil and peaceful resistance to put an end to this lethal hemorrhaging of the rule of law and human rights, to demand the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and to restore the democratic transition based on the lessons of the present and the past.