Tunisia -

It seems that the campaign of arrests in Tunisia has reached new turns during the recent period, as there is great concern about the health status of isolated judge Bashir al-Akrami, who was arrested on the background of investigations related to state security, before being admitted to a mental hospital.

The authorities did not announce the reasons for the arrest of the former representative of the Republic in the Court of First Instance, Bashir Al-Akrami, and then his admission to Al-Razi Hospital for mental illness in the capital, amid suggestions that he was claiming a nervous breakdown to escape accountability, while human rights voices warned against an attempt to liquidate him.

Human rights authorities were quick to warn of the danger of repeated promotion on communication platforms of Al-Akrami's suicide attempt, and to prevent him from any visit, and also asked the judicial authorities to investigate, considering that the promotion of his suicide attempt "indicates a desire to silence and liquidate him," as she put it.

The defense team said that there are fears for Al-Akrami's life in the face of the systematic targeting and mutilation he has been subjected to for several years, which reached its extent in the recent period by fabricating files for him, raiding his house, and detaining him for a whole day outside the framework of the law.

In turn, the National Organization for the Prevention of Torture denounced its prevention of access to the conditions of Al-Akrami's condition in the hospital, without obtaining a response explaining the reason for this prevention, in a precedent that it considered dangerous.

Liquidation fears

Amid these concerns, Mona Al-Gharbi, Bashir Al-Akrami's wife, said that she does not have any information about his health condition because she was prevented from visiting him, stressing that the security did not allow her to see the direct doctor for her husband's condition, which raised many concerns about his safety.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Gharbi expressed her concern about the existence of a plan to liquidate her husband, especially with the repeated promotion on communication platforms of his suicide attempt, blaming Tunisian President Qais Saeed and Minister of Justice Leila Jaffal, in addition to Minister of Interior Tawfiq Sharaf al-Din, responsible for Al-Akrami's psychological and physical safety.

She affirmed that her husband enjoys good health thanks to his practice of sports, and that he does not complain of any diseases, despite the fact that he was subjected to injustice and distortion during the period he spent working as a representative of the Republic in the Court of First Instance, where he supervised the most dangerous files of assassinations and terrorism.

Visit ban

In this context, Hammadi Al-Zafarani, a member of Al-Akrami's defense, said that the defense has not been able, until now, to visit him and check on his health in the mental hospital, surprising that lawyers or his family were not allowed to visit him despite his release.

The defense team confirmed that on Friday, February 17, the prosecution refused to extend Al-Akrami's detention, but decided to "mandatory shelter" him in Al-Razi Hospital for mental illness.

The dismissed judge, Hammadi al-Rahmani, said that keeping al-Akrami in forced isolation in a mental hospital does not reassure him, considering that spreading rumors about his suicide attempt while preventing his family and lawyer from visiting him and tightening security guards on him is suspicious.

The defense authority says that Al-Akrami was pursued due to his insistence on revealing the truth and not succumbing to the pressures exerted on him by influential parties, confirming that he was pursued and targeted by security agencies that proved to be failing to reveal the truth, and were involved in torture in the case of the Bardo incident.

The Public Prosecution released Al-Akrami after his arrest due to a complaint filed against him by members of the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Bouchoucha in the capital, in what is known as the file of the terrorist attack in the Bardo Museum in 2015, which left 22 dead.

The complaint comes against the background of Al-Akrami, in his capacity as an investigating judge, withdrawing the file of that case from the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Bouchoucha and transferring it to the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the National Gendarmerie, which enabled the arrest of the real culprits in the crime, according to Al-Akrami's defense.

Since his arrest on February 12, Al-Akrami has gone on a hunger strike, given that the Public Prosecution office assigned the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Bouchoucha to investigate the matter, even though it was the party from which Al-Akrami had withdrawn the Bardo case.

Madness versus truth

For his part, lawyer Abd al-Latif Tatuhi said that Al-Akrami was subjected years ago to distortion through media platforms without deviating from the duty of his reservations, but when he wanted to reveal the facts he was arrested, then they accused him of madness in the end to silence him, according to his post on the communication sites.

In turn, the leader of the Islamic Renaissance Movement, Imad Al-Khamiri, told Al-Jazeera Net that the purpose of placing Al-Akrami in a mental hospital is to prevent him from speaking and revealing facts, stressing that he is being targeted in order to manipulate the files of political assassinations and terrorism.

On the other hand, the lawyer, Wafaa Al-Shazly, said that Al-Akrami entered into a nervous fit to delude the authorities into a breakdown in his nerves to escape accountability, stressing that his health condition is not in critical condition, and that he is under the supervision of medical competencies, and that not allowing him to meet him is part of his safety.

Tunisian President Qais Saeed - whom the opposition accuses of attempting to perpetuate authoritarian rule - has indirectly accused Bashir al-Akrami of claiming insanity when the hand of justice reached him, accusing him previously of covering up several terrorist files.

Terrorism controversy

By virtue of his sensitive position, Bashir Al-Akrami has become a prominent focus of controversy between those who see him as an independent judge who worked with integrity to dismantle the threads of terrorist operations and overthrow their elements, and those who accuse him of covering up and obscuring evidence that implicates political parties, who they believe are involved in terrorism.

The defense committee for the two assassinated leftist leaders, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2023, had accused Al-Akrami of covering up leaders in the Ennahda movement involved in assassination and terrorism files, a charge that Al-Nahda movement denies, as well as the isolated judge Bashir Al-Akrami.

Al-Akrami was dismissed by President Qais Saeed according to the presidential order issued on June 1, 2022, as part of a list of 57 dismissed judges on suspicions of corruption or involvement in terrorist cases, moral issues, and others.

Although the Administrative Court in Tunisia decided in July 2022 to stop the implementation of a large number of dismissal decisions against judges - including Bashir Al-Akrami - the Ministry of Justice refused to implement the court's decision and return them to their jobs, claiming that they are the subject of criminal prosecutions.

The isolated Judge Bashir Al-Akrami was arrested for the first time last Sunday, February 12, on the same day that the former first president of the Court of Cassation, the isolated Judge Al-Tayeb Rashid, was arrested, and their arrest came amid a campaign of arrests that included politicians.