Families of jailed Tunisian opposition urge international help

In Tunisia, families of jailed opposition figures are urging international actors to pressure President Kais Saied to end what they call absurd mass trials against his critics.  

On 4 March, a Tunisian court opened a high-profile case against 40 individuals, including prominent opposition leaders, accused of conspiring against state security.

However, the defendants, deemed too dangerous to be transported from prison, were barred from appearing in court, among them, 69-year-old Said Ferjani, a former lawmaker in the parliament President Saied dissolved in 2021.  

Their lawyers demanded their clients be allowed to appear in person, as did protesters gathered outside. Defendants appearing by video, one lawyer argued, were “deprived of the support of their families,” while the judge had no way of assessing their well-being or the conditions of their detention.  

“My father was taken from his prison to another one two and a half hours away just to attend this remote hearing”, Kaouther Ferjani, his daughter, told The New Arab. “And if you knew anything about how my father gets transported, you’d know it’s akin to torture.”  

Ferjani, a longtime opponent of the regime in Tunisia, had lived in exile under Tunisia’s former autocrat, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He returned after the 2011 revolution, hoping to help shape Tunisia’s transition to democracy.  

Then, in February 2023, he was arrested in connection with Instalingo, a digital content production company accused of inciting violence against Saied. Last month, after two years of pretrial detention, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.  

Now, his family says, he faces yet another case—one they claim was recently expanded, even without the court sharing much information with his lawyer.

“They want to make sure he never leaves prison”, Kaouther Ferjani said.  

In addition to Ferjani, among the accused are former diplomats, business leaders, journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders. Those not detained, like lawyers Ayachi Hammami and Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, appeared in person; others, exiled by the proceedings, remain at large.  

Some defendants face charges that carry the death penalty. The allegations range from plotting against state security and belonging to a terrorist group to illegal dealings with foreign entities.  

The case is the latest in a series of moves by Saied’s government to stamp out dissent.  

Rached Ghannouchi, the 83-year-old leader of the Muslim Democrat Ennahda party and former speaker of parliament, has been sentenced to more than 26 years in prison across multiple trials.

On the opposite end of the political spectrum, Abir Moussi, leader of the secular Free Constitutional Party, has been jailed since 2023.  

Saied, re-elected last year in a controversial election, has dismissed his critics as “traitors and terrorists.”

He denies interfering in the judiciary, but rights groups and international bodies, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, say otherwise.  

In February 2022, Saied dissolved Tunisia’s Supreme Judicial Council, the body tasked with ensuring judicial independence, calling it biased and ineffective. He later granted himself broad authority over judicial appointments, tightening his grip on the courts.  

Last week, Tunisia’s government rejected the United Nations’ accusations of political repression, calling them inaccurate and unfounded.

On 3 March, families of jailed opposition figures turned to the international body themselves, to denounce what they called Saied’s persecution of his critics and his discriminatory policies against Black migrants.  

They believe international pressure could force the president to back down.  

“These trials are a clear sign of the erosion of democratic freedoms in Tunisia“, said Ferjani’s daughter. “We need urgency from the international community before the 2011 revolution’s gains disappear completely.”