The Tunisian General Labor Union (the largest trade union in the country) announced today, Sunday, its readiness to confront what it described as an attack targeting it, at a time of escalating tension between the labor organization and President Kais Saied.

The Secretary-General of the Labor Union, Noureddine Al-Taboubi, said during a union meeting in the city of Hammamet in Nabeul Governorate (southeast of the capital) that the union is targeted because it said its word clearly, and it is ready to confront the attack that some want to adopt to pass projects to sell the country's gains, as he put it.

Al-Taboubi added that the federation will not stand neutral in defending union, individual and public freedoms, saying that Tunisia cannot be built with hate speech and accusations.

The Secretary-General of the Labor Union also said that the union does not bully anyone, and will remain steadfast despite the demonization, distortion and fabrication of files against it, as happened in the sixties, seventies and eighties of the last century, in reference to the clash with the authority.

Yesterday, Saturday, the Tunisian president ordered the expulsion of the Secretary-General of the Confederation of European Trade Unions, Esther Lynch, as persona non grata, after her participation in a demonstration organized by the Labor Union in the city of Sfax (east), as part of protests that included several governorates to denounce what he describes as attacks on trade union rights and freedoms.

Support message

Al-Taboubi considered that Lynch's presence in the trade union movements in Tunisia was a message of support and backing, and not as it was promoted as bullying the foreigner, calling in the meantime for a televised debate to "reveal the facts for public opinion."

The dean of Tunisian lawyers, Hatem Al-Maziou, said in a statement to a local radio that the expulsion decision is not correct and harms Tunisia's reputation, stressing on the other hand that the Tunisian judiciary is not in a sound condition at present.


Recently, Saeed criticized strikes carried out by the Labor Union and considered that they had political ends. The authorities arrested one of the leaders of the Union's Transport Union and summoned others for investigation on charges that include obstruction of work.

Although the largest labor organization in Tunisia supported the exceptional measures taken by the Tunisian president from June 25, 2021, he asserts that he was not allowed to restore the authoritarian regime.

An alarming situation

In the context of the recent arrests in Tunisia, there is concern about the health status of Judge Al-Bashir Al-Akrami, who was arrested in the context of investigations related to state security, according to the authorities.

Human rights parties warned of what was described as the repeated promotion of the news of Al-Akrami's attempt to commit suicide, in addition to preventing his family and lawyer from visiting him after his sudden transfer to a mental hospital in the Tunisian capital and the tightening of security guards over him.

The dismissed judge, Hammadi al-Rahmani, called on human rights organizations and the National Authority for the Prevention of Torture to visit him and learn about his detention conditions.

Attorney Hammadi Al-Zafarani had confirmed that Al-Akrami was transferred to Al-Razi Hospital for Mental Diseases, after he suffered an acute nervous attack in the detention center.

The judicial authorities did not express any official position on the arrest of the judge, who took place as part of the recent campaign of arrests, or on his health condition.

Judge Bashir Al-Akrami was responsible for the file of the assassination of dissidents Shukri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013, and left-wing parties accuse him of concealing evidence to protect parties involved in the assassination, and last June he was dismissed along with 56 other judges by decision of President Qais Saeed.