The "Citizens Against the Coup" campaign in Tunisia announced today, Wednesday, the death of a citizen as a result of the injuries it said he sustained as a result of violence by the security forces during the Revolution Day demonstration on January 14, and held the authorities criminally responsible for his death.
The campaign said - in a statement posted on its Facebook page - "Today, Wednesday, January 19 (January) at Habib Thamer Hospital in the capital, the late Reda Bouziane was martyred, succumbed to his injuries as a result of being violently and dragged by the police on January 14, during the demonstration celebrating the revolution and facing the coup. ".
The statement added, "The martyr has been counted among the missing since the day of the demonstration, without enabling his family, the Committee against Torture, lawyers and human rights organizations to know his fate and whereabouts."
Citizens Against the Coup called for the holding of a national funeral for Reda Bouziane, stressing that it holds the "coup authority criminally responsible for this crime," and called for "the prosecution of the perpetrators before the Tunisian judiciary and the International Criminal Court."
Tunisian human rights and trade union associations and organizations also called on President Kais Saied to apologize for what she called the violence that was practiced against citizens during the demonstrations commemorating the revolution.
The Tunis Court of First Instance said that an investigation is underway into the death of a person who was taken to hospital on January 14, "in a state of coma."
The court added that preliminary investigations showed that the deceased had no visible signs of violence.
lawyers pause
Tunisian lawyers organized a sit-down in front of the Palace of Justice in the capital, Tunis, today, Wednesday, to reject the exceptional measures taken by President Kais Saied since last July.
Video clips showed lawyers gathering in front of the building, raising slogans denouncing what they described as the attacks on the demonstrators who came out on January 14, the 11th anniversary of the fall of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime.
The lawyers demanded an end to what they described as the "forced detention" of their colleague, lawyer Noureddine El Beheiry, Vice President of Ennahda Movement and former Minister of Justice.
Lawyers said that the recent practices brought Tunisians back to zero in the field of freedoms, after Tunisia had made great progress in it over the past years.
Noureddine El Beheiry, 63, is still on hunger strike, in protest of his arrest since December 31, which Ennahda described as kidnapping.
On January 2, Al-Buhairi was transferred to the resuscitation department in a hospital in the city of Bizerte (north), after his health deteriorated.
Tunisian Interior Minister Tawfiq Sharaf El-Din announced on January 3 that Noureddine El-Behairi and former Interior Ministry official Fathi El-Baladi had been placed under house arrest on charges related to "suspicion of terrorism" regarding illegally obtaining Tunisian travel and citizenship documents for a Syrian and his wife.
However, international human rights organizations denounced the arrest of al-Buhairi and al-Baldi, and demanded their immediate release or trial in accordance with legal procedures.
Reporters Without Borders warns
In a related context, Reporters Without Borders warned that the recent political developments in Tunisia threaten press freedoms.
In a report on the reality of the press in Tunisia under the title "The Hour of Truth", which was presented today, Wednesday, during a joint symposium with the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate and the Tunisian General Labor Union (the largest trade union), "Reporters Without Borders" said that President Kais Saied, after his election, cut the connection with the media outlets. traditional media.
The organization added that after what happened last July 25, pluralism is being undermined, and intimidation of journalists has become a regular occurrence, indicating that freedom of the press is no longer the declared priority of the president.
The organization called on the Tunisian authorities to guarantee real freedom of the press and to preserve the constitutional guarantees of freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of the press established after the revolution.