Missing since August 25, in Tunis, Algerian Slimane Bouhafs has still not given any sign of life on September 1, while media have indicated that he was now in Algeria.

This refugee could even be brought before a judge soon, according to the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights.

The affair, which has not been officially commented on either in Algiers or Tunis, has been causing a stir in Tunisia for a few days. Forty Tunisian human rights NGOs have mobilized to express their indignation and ask for clarification from the authorities they accuse of having "delivered Slimane Bouhafs" to Algeria.

"We received information indicating, on August 25, that Slimane Bouhafs was arrested, without knowing by whom or for what reason, explains to France 24, Romdhane Ben Amor, communication officer of the Tunisian Forum of Economic and Social Rights (FTDES We tried with the help of several lawyers to search for him, in police stations and the court of Tunis, without finding any information. We continued to dig, before finally learning, on August 29, thanks to Algerian media that Slimane Bouhafs was in the hands of the Algerian authorities and that he will be tried on the spot ".

The opponent Slimane Bouhafs, 54, is accused by Algiers of activating within the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), an independentist organization classified as "terrorist" by the authorities.

Before seeking asylum in Tunisia, he was sentenced in 2016 to three years in prison for "attacking the Muslim faith" in publications posted on his Facebook page.

This former police officer, converted to Christianity at the end of the 1990s, will finally be released almost two years after his imprisonment, benefiting from a presidential pardon.

Radio silence from Tunis

Romdhane Ben Amor denounces the radio silence opposed by the Tunisian authorities on this issue.

"We have no response from the Tunisian authorities on the fate of Slimane Bouhafs, and his family still has no contact with him, therefore we consider that this man is in a situation of enforced disappearance".

And to add: "We ask for explanations because we want to know why and how a man placed under the protection of the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Editor's note] was delivered to Algiers, the Tunisian State must explain this what happened with this refugee, because it is a dangerous precedent which violates article 26 of our Constitution guaranteeing the right of asylum and the obligations of Tunisia which has signed international conventions ".

Tunisian associations and organizations indicate that the UNHCR granted Slimane Bouhafs refugee status in September 2020, which guarantees international protection to the beneficiary and requires Tunisia, as a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention, to his 1967 Protocol and the 1984 Convention against Torture, not to extradite him. 

"It is neither nationality, nor what is possibly reproached to Slimane Bouhafs that motivates us, but indeed the defense of the refugee status which has been flouted and the procedures which have not been respected".

Romdhane Ben Amor assures us that Tunisian NGOs would have acted in the same way if Slimane Bouhafs had been a Sudanese, Ivorian or Syrian refugee.

"It is a precedent which calls into question everything, and one can wonder, for example, if Tunisia will one day deliver Syrian refugees to the regime of Bashar al-Assad if he demands it, he pleads. This is not acceptable, as is the silence of the authorities on this affair, especially in a context where there are many concerns about rights and freedoms in Tunisia ".

A reference to the coup de force of President Kaïs Saïed who decided, at the end of July, to grant himself full powers, to suspend Parliament and to dismiss the Prime Minister, Hichem Mechichi. 

A parallel with the arrest of Nabil Karoui?

This case comes a few days after the arrest, in Algeria, of the former Tunisian presidential candidate, Nabil Karoui, accused of having entered Algerian territory illegally, according to several Tunisian media.

Owner of the Tunisian channel Nessma and chairman of the Qalb Tounes party, he was released on June 15 after six months in detention for a case of money laundering and tax evasion.

Tunisian justice launched on Tuesday a "search notice" against Nabil Karoui and his brother MP, while so far, neither Algeria nor Tunisia have officially confirmed his arrest.

Still, the NGOs are careful not to draw a parallel between the two cases, even if Tunisian media and activists on social networks estimated that the arrest of the Karoui brothers would have taken place in exchange for the handing over of Slimane Bouhafs to Algeria.  

"We have no information on this subject, and in the eyes of our organization, the case of Slimane Bouhafs is the most sensitive. Nabil Karoui is a politician, while Slimane Bouhafs is a refugee protected by conventions and he is unimaginable. that it could be the object of diplomatic or political bargaining between Tunisia and Algeria ". 

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