Around 100 renowned scientists are calling for a petition to release their colleague: Moncef Kartas has been imprisoned in Tunisia for five weeks. He flew to Tunis on 26 March on behalf of the United Nations and was arrested at the airport. The Tunisian prosecution said they were investigating him for disclosing secret information and espionage. It is a particularly serious charge. Even the death penalty could threaten him.
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The case is extraordinary: Kartas, a German-Tunisian dual citizen, the mother German, the father of native Tunisians, conducted research on behalf of the UN Security Council. He holds a doctorate from the prestigious Geneva University Institute for International Studies and Development and since 2016 has been a member of the Uno Libya's six-person, independent expert panel.
As part of his mission, Kartas enjoys diplomatic immunity. In other words, Tunisia can not actually prosecute him without the UN Secretary-General António Guterres lifting his immunity. Tunisia likes to boast of being the only surviving model of the Arab Spring. But now the government is under suspicion of falling back into authoritarian times and of locking up and silencing an unpopular scientist.
The case is particularly explosive in that Kartas is considered an expert in arms smuggling in Libya. On behalf of the UN, he was to investigate which countries violate the existing since 2011 arms embargo against Libya. It is a dangerous mission, as it touches the interests of some powerful people in the region: Currently, the warlord Khalifa Haftar tries to seize control of Libya. He is supported by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. These use their Luftwaffe in Haftar's favor.
Reports of alleged offenses by the warlord
The United Arab Emirates are also expected to deliver weapons to Haftar with Tunisian aid - thereby violating the embargo. In addition, Haftar is protected by France and the recent US President Donald Trump.
Already in his last report, the UN expert panel against the warlord and his environment made serious allegations: His son had robbed the equivalent of several million from the central bank in East Libya; his militia is said to be involved in the brutal human trafficking to Europe. The UN experts have also documented evidence of violations of the arms embargo in the past: they denounced in particular the United Arab Emirates, criticized Tunisia and made a mysterious delivery by air via Moldova.
more on the subject
Karta's arrest now that the experts are working on her next report raises the question of what he might have discovered this time around. According to Tunisian media, in Tunis, Kartas was scheduled to attend a meeting of the so-called Libya Quartet consisting of representatives of the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the Arab League.
So far, the Tunisian prosecutor has not presented any evidence against Kartas. His international science colleagues are now calling on the federal government, the Tunisian government and UN Secretary General António Guterres to do everything possible to release him soon.