TUNIS — Freedoms are imperiled in Tunisia
after the violent suppression of protests against President
Kais Saied last
week, rights groups warned Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Police on Friday cracked down heavily as
hundreds gathered to rally against a July 2021 "coup" by Saied in
Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolts against authoritarianism.
"It is clear that freedoms are
threatened and face an imminent peril," Yassine Jelassi, head of the
Tunisian National Journalists' Union (SNJT), told a press conference organized by 21
human rights groups.
"A police and security mentality is
running the state... Tunisia has become a country which suppresses
freedoms."
The non-governmental groups have denounced
what they said was heavy-handed police actions against journalists and
protesters during rallies on Friday.
Tunis, the capital, has not witnessed such
unrest for a decade.
Police backed by water cannon charged at
demonstrators, fired tear gas, and made dozens of violent arrests.
The protests took place despite a ban on
gatherings as coronavirus cases surge, but which Saied's opponents said was
politically motivated.
On July 25, Said suspended parliament,
dismissed the prime minister and said he would assume executive powers. Then in
September he took steps to rule by decree.
The demonstrations came on the 11th
anniversary of late dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's flight into exile.
His departure led to enormous progress in
terms of freedoms in Tunisia, the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring
uprisings.
But civil society groups and Saied's
political opponents have been warning of a return to authoritarianism under his
power grab.
Some Tunisians, however, tired of the inept
and graft-ridden parliamentary system, have welcomed his moves.
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