Souab is a fierce critic of President Kais Saied and was arrested for feedback concerning the judiciary appearing beneath duress.
A Tunisian choose has ordered the detention of distinguished lawyer Ahmed Souab, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, attorneys stated, two days after his arrest for feedback concerning the judiciary.
Souab’s arrest sparked widespread anger amongst political events and civil society teams, which stated the transfer was a harmful escalation of a crackdown on dissent and marked an additional entrenchment of the nation’s authoritarian regime.
Activists took to the streets in protest this week, calling for his launch, chanting slogans towards Saied and demanding an finish to the harassment, silencing and imprisonment of critics.
Souab was on the authorized defence crew within the mass trial final week, by which dozens of defendants, together with vocal critics of Saied, had been handed jail phrases of as much as 66 years.
The lawyer was arrested on Monday in a police raid on his residence within the capital Tunis, after saying earlier than his purchasers’ sentencing that “knives usually are not on the necks of detainees, however on the neck of the choose issuing the ruling,” criticising political strain judges had been allegedly beneath.
An anti-terrorism court docket interpreted the remark as a menace to the judges, however Souab’s attorneys stated it was a reference to the massive political strain on judges.
Souab had been detained on “terrorism-related expenses” over the remark, a spokesperson for the court docket stated.
Souab is a retired administrative choose and lawyer, and a vocal critic of Saied, who has repeatedly stated the judiciary had misplaced its independence.
His attorneys boycotted Wednesday’s listening to after the choose knowledgeable them that he had accepted the illustration of solely 4 attorneys out of the handfuls current to defend him.
Saeb Souab, the detained lawyer’s son, advised journalists that “primarily based on a metaphor, my father is now suspected of terrorism”.
Addressing President Saied, his former legislation professor Saeb Souab stated, “This isn’t the legislation you taught us.”
He referred to as for the discharge of his father, who he stated suffers from coronary heart issues.
‘Hasty trial’
Since Saied launched an influence seize in the summertime of 2021, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms within the North African nation the place the 2011 Arab Spring started.
Critics have denounced the current mass trial as politically motivated and baseless. The defendants confronted expenses together with “conspiracy towards state safety” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, in accordance with their attorneys.
Amongst these focused are figures from what was as soon as the largest celebration, Ennahdha, such because the chief and former Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi, former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, former Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri, and Mentioned Ferjani, a member of the celebration’s political govt.
However the crackdown has additionally Hit many many non-ennahdha figures, together with Abir Mousi, A fierce critic of ennahdha, and Abderazek krimi, the challenge director of the tunisian refugee nation.
A few of them had been arrested in February 2023, after which Saied labelled them “terrorists”.
“The Tunisian court docket didn’t give defendants a lot as a semblance of a good trial,” stated Bassam Khawaja, deputy Center East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Tunisia was “making it clear that anybody collaborating in political opposition or civic activism dangers years in jail after a hasty trial with out due course of”, he added.
A number of Tunisian authorized students additionally denounced in a petition on Tuesday “flagrant violations of all of the bases of a good trial”.
