Tunisian President extends exceptional emergency powers again
The Tunisian president announced on January 30th that the state of emergency will be extended until the end of 2025, according to GOA.
The decision, that can only made by decree, confers exceptional powers to authorities, including carrying out home arrests, banning official meetings, imposing curfews, monitoring media and press, prohibiting assemblies, and media censorship without permission from the judiciary.
As one of the most common tools of emergency powers, Tunisian authority regularly use what they call “assigned residences” to conceal secret detentions, a practice that has surged under the new President and chiefly targeted members of the opposition.
The regime of exception, although it is intended to be temporary, has been in force in Tunisia from the outset of the revolution, with only a short year-break before Covid-19.
However, Kais Saied has used the tool as never before since he first extended the measure to an unprecedented 11 months in 2023.
While most apparent after the 2015 Sousse terrorist attacks, the necessity of maintaining the emergency measures today sparks criticism both nationally and internationally.
The state of exception has given free rein to the President to gradually arrogate himself all powers as he dissolved the parliament, suspended the constitution, and took control of the supreme judicial council.
As this was not enough, Saied has used his control over the judiciary to persecute political opponents, detaining twenty political leaders for suspicion of “plotting against state security” in 2021. Most of them are still detained to this day, including Islamist party Ennahda leader and former speaker of the Parliament Rached Ghannouchi and Neo Destour’s Abir Moussi.
In the last year, civil society and media have also become prime targets for Saied. On 11 May 2024, lawyer and television commentator Sonia Dahmani was arrested after she made televised critical remarks against the government and the general political situation in Tunisia.
As the repressive climate reaches new heights and more voices within Tunisia are progressively being silenced, Saied’s re-election in October means the emergency regime is likely continuing.
GOA, Carnegie, Maghrebi, France 24
