Families of Tunisian detainees before an African court to demand their release

The families of arrested Tunisian opposition members filed a complaint on Wednesday with the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights to demand the immediate release of their loved ones

Families of Tunisian detainees before an African court to demand their release

The families of arrested Tunisian opposition members filed a complaint on Wednesday with the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights to demand the immediate release of their loved ones.

Since early February, the Tunisian authorities have imprisoned more than 20 opponents and personalities including former ministers, a crackdown condemned by the international community and by human rights groups.

Rached Ghannouchi, the former speaker of parliament and one of the main opponents of Tunisian President Kais Saied, who dissolved parliament in July 2021 and assumed full powers, is among those detained.

Mr. Ghannouchi, 81, leader of the Islamo-conservative movement Ennahdha, was arrested in April and sentenced on May 15 to one year in prison for "apology for terrorism".

For his daughter, Yousra Ghannouchi, 45, who lives in Britain, the charges against the former speaker of Tunisia's parliament are "politically motivated and fabricated" and part of an attempt by Mr Saied to "eliminate the opposition," she told AFP.

Kais Saied for his part claimed that those detained were "terrorists" involved in a "conspiracy against state security".

The arrests and convictions have been branded by opponents as a "coup" and a return to autocratic rule in the only democracy that emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings more than a decade ago.

Relatives of Mr Ghannouchi and several other imprisoned opponents have filed a complaint at the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, as part of a global campaign to demand their release.

"We hope this will lead to their release and justice for them," Yousra Ghannouchi said in Nairobi on Tuesday, on the eve of a trip to Arusha.

"They are not silent and we will not be silent," she continued.

Yousra Ghannouchi, like several other relatives of detainees, also called on the United States, the European Union and Great Britain to impose targeted sanctions against Mr. Saied and several ministers who are "all implicated in human rights violations ".

"They are trying to defend their cases in Tunisia but all the doors have been closed," Rodney Dixon, a lawyer for Mr. Ghannouchi and five other imprisoned people, told AFP.

Mr Dixon said the relatives wanted to take legal action to find that the imprisonments were against the African human rights charter and to secure their release.

"There is no justice through the system there (...), that's why they have to come" before the African Court, said Mr. Dixon, adding that the detainees had no regular access to lawyers and struggled to obtain proper medical care.

The attorney also said an "allegation of torture" about a detainee will be raised in court.

Yousra Ghannouchi said she was worried about her father's health as he suffers from hypertension and "he is no longer a young man".

The former Speaker of Parliament was imprisoned twice in the 1980s for clandestine political activities before going into exile for 20 years and then returning after the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the 2011 Arab Spring revolt .

Tunisia is one of six countries on the continent to have fully adhered to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

24/05/2023 07:48:36 -         Nairobi (AFP) -          © 2023 AFP