In an escalation of growing anger against the Mesheshi government

Protests against police violence spread to popular neighborhoods in Tunis

The protests erupted after the publication of a video clip showing a policeman dragging a child.

EPA

Violent protests that began last week in the Tunis suburb of Sijoumi, in protest of police violence, spread to other popular neighborhoods in the city, the night before last, in an escalation of growing anger against the government of Prime Minister Hicham Meshishi.

In Al-Tadamon neighborhood and Al-Intilaqa neighborhood, young people gathered, and protesters blocked roads and threw stones at police cars, while the police fired tear gas canisters to disperse them.

The protests erupted after the publication of a video clip showing a policeman dragging a child in Sigomi, after he took off all his clothes, causing shock and anger and doubts about the credibility of the police reform plans after the 2011 revolution.

A young man also died last week in Sijoumi, shortly after his arrest.

The young man's family accuses the police of killing him after hitting him on the head, which the Ministry of Interior denied.

The two incidents were among the main reasons for the outbreak of the new wave of protests.

Forty-three organizations, including the Journalists Syndicate, the Labor Union, the Bar Association and the Human Rights League, called for a protest on Friday, to protest against the impunity of the police.

On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was concerned about repeated allegations of grave abuses by the Tunisian police, and called on the authorities to investigate them seriously.

Jurists say that the repetition of grave police violations and the impunity of perpetrators refute the seriousness of these reforms, and threatens to undermine the gains of the revolution.

During protests last January, security forces arrested about 2,000 people, most of them minors.

Human rights organizations said hundreds of them were mistreated.

43 organizations called for a protest on Friday.

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