In Tunisia, several hundred people gathered Sunday, April 9, in the center of the capital at the call of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition to President Kaïs Saïed, to demand the release of about twenty opponents arrested since early February.

Carrying Tunisian flags or placards bearing the image of those imprisoned, about 300 opposition party activists chanted slogans calling for their release outside the Tunis Municipal Theatre, according to AFP journalists.

At the demonstration, Samir Ben Amor, a Republican Party official, called for a "national dialogue to develop a roadmap to save Tunisia and return to the democratic path."

Wave of arrests

Since the beginning of February, the authorities have detained more than 20 opponents and personalities, including former ministers, businessmen and the boss of the country's most listened to radio station, Radio Mosaïque.

The arrests, denounced by local and international NGOs, targeted leading political figures of the National Salvation Front and its main component, the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party.

President Kaïs Saïed, who assumed full powers to himself in July 2021, called those arrested "terrorists", saying they were involved in a "plot against state security".

Denouncing "a witch hunt", Amnesty International called on the Tunisian authorities to "abandon the criminal investigation against at least 17 people (...) on the basis of unfounded accusations of conspiracy."

Belgacem Hassen, of the FSN, asked Sunday that the "prosecutor or justice take over (from the police, editor's note) and present to the Tunisian people the accusations against the detainees".

Kaïs Saïed's "no" to the IMF

The demonstrators also referred to the rejection a few days ago by President Kaïs Saïed of "the diktats of the IMF" with which Tunisia has been in talks for months for a rescue plan of 1.9 billion dollars (1.75 billion euros).

"The government has been negotiating for a year and a half with the International Monetary Fund and on a single word of the president, all negotiations have been cut, condemning Tunisia to a worsening of the crisis," said Samir Ben Amor.

>> Watch: Tunisia: EU fears country 'collapse'

Tunisia, which is struggling to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, is plagued by high inflation exceeding 10%. And without external aid, the State, highly indebted, risks, according to the rating agencies, not being able to repay in the coming months several loans subscribed abroad.

With AFP

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