TUNIS, Aug 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Concern is mounting over freedoms in Tunisia as President Kais Saied presses ahead with a “purge” that has seen politicians, judges and businessmen arrested or banned from travel, activists
say.
On July 25, Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament for one month citing powers he says were granted by the constitution, but he has yet to reveal a “roadmap” for his decisions despite repeated demands by political parties.
Saied’s shock move has sparked uncertainties for Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began a decade ago, setting in motion pro-democracy revolts across the region that unseated autocratic leaders.
Tunisia, hailed as a rare democratic success story in the Middle East and North Africa, is mired in a political crisis compounded by dire economic woes and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several politicians, businessmen and judges, as well as members of parliament — who lost their immunity after Saied suspended the legislature – – have said they were banned from travelling abroad or put under house arrest
without prior warning.
Their claims have sparked a chorus of condemnation, with critics denouncing “arbitrary” and “unjustified” measures.
But Saied offered a stiff response to his critics during a recent visit to the Tunis-Carthage International Airport.
“The freedom to travel is a constitutional right which I promise to guarantee,” he said. “But some people will have to answer to the judicial authorities before being able to travel”.
Saied insists that his actions are guaranteed by Article 80 of the constitution, which stipulates that the head of state can take “exceptional measures” in case of an “imminent danger” to national security.
Saied was a political newcomer before he won a landslide election victory in 2019 amid growing frustrations at the failure of the political elite since the 2011 revolt.
A legal academic who lectured at the Tunis faculty of judicial and political sciences, Saied had from the onset declared his determination to revamp the political system through his views of the law.
A group of 45 judges have penned a joint statement in recent days, denouncing Saied’s travel bans as “authoritarian drift”.
They also condemned what they called “the awful and unprecedented” moves by the president to bar judges from travelling in and out of the country. — NNN-AGENCIES
