Covid-19 as an alibi… According to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), Tunisia hides “secret detentions” by passing them off as isolation due to coronavirus.

“The Tunisian authorities are concealing under certain house arrests secret detentions under the pretext of a state of emergency,” HRW said in a statement on Wednesday.

The association cites the cases of the former Minister of Justice and number two of the Ennahdha party, Noureddine Bhiri, and of Fethi Baldi, a senior executive of this party, a pet peeve of President Kais Saied.

“A dangerous escalation”

For HRW, "the excesses in the application" of such an "extrajudicial measure" in the name of exceptional legislation promulgated under former President Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987) and regularly extended, "have multiplied" since the coup by Kais Saied, who assumed full powers on July 25 and "demonstrates a dangerous escalation".

In #Tunisia, exceptional measures granted by the emergency decree are being used abusively and without judicial oversight, raising the specter of secret detentions.

These violations further erode the principles of the rule of law.

@SaChellalihttps://t.co/K15gYpWFUf pic.twitter.com/5CU3uwIeU8

— Wenzel Michalski (@WenzelMichalski) February 9, 2022

The NGO denounced at least two other house arrests with arrest and incommunicado, justified by the Ministry of the Interior on suspicion of "serious threat to public security".

These two subpoenas were lifted a few days later.

Hunger-strike

"The exceptional measures granted by the emergency decree are used in an abusive manner and without judicial control" and "raise the specter of secret detentions", denounced Salsabil Chellali, head of HRW for Tunisia.

Bhiri and Baldi were arrested and forcibly taken on January 31 by plainclothes officers to an unknown location.

Noureddine Bhiri was hospitalized the next day in Bizerte (north) after the deterioration of his state of health while the exact place of detention of Fethi Baldi remains secret.

Noureddine Bhiri on hunger strike and who initially refused to take his medication, is being fed and cared for via infusions, according to HRW.

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