Amnesty International, today, Tuesday, August 16, 2022 urged Tunisian authorities to immediately drop all charges against Salah Attia, a detained journalist who is on trial before a military court in connection with public remarks he made about President Kais Saied and the armed forces.
This is contained in a statement issued by Amnesty International ahead of Attia’s next trial hearing scheduled for today, August 16, 2022. Attia has now been detained for two months, and could face up to seven years’ imprisonment if found guilty.
He is among the latest in a series of high-profile critics, political opponents, and perceived enemies of the President whom authorities have targeted with investigation, prosecution, arbitrary travel bans, or arbitrary detention since Saied came to power on July 25, 2021.
“Tunisian authorities are perfectly free to dispute and counter what media report about them without arresting and prosecuting journalists. In any case, no civilian should face trial before Tunisia’s military courts. This travesty of justice must stop.
“While President Saied has repeatedly vowed to uphold human rights including freedom of expression, authorities’ persecution of Salah Attia sends a message to journalists that reporting on the president and state institutions may carry risks. Authorities must immediately release Salah Attia and drop the bogus charges against him”.
Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa
On 10th June 2022, Attia, who is the owner and editor of Al Ray Al Jadid, a Tunis-based online newspaper, spoke as a guest on an Al Jazeera news show. During the broadcast, he said that President Saied had asked the army to close the offices of the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travaille, Tunisia’s largest labour union, but that the army had refused to do so and had informed the union.
However, the union denied this claim. Attia also said that the army refused a request by Saied to place unspecified political leaders under house arrest.
Military Court of First Instance opens an investigation
On 11 June, police in Tunis arrested Attia. Two days later, the Military Court of First Instance opened an investigation against him in connection with the 10th June broadcast. A military judge ordered him to be placed in detention, where he has remained since.
Two days later, the court launched an investigation against Attia for inciting armed violence, “accusing a public official of illegal acts without proof,” “denigrating the army” and “harming or disturbing others through telecommunications networks.”
At the opening of Attia’s trial on July 25, the judge dropped the charge of inciting armed violence, which mandates the death penalty, but maintained the other three charges, according to Attia’s lawyers. The three remaining charges all carry prison terms.
“Journalists should never have to fear reprisals from authorities for their reporting, no matter how critical, embarrassing, or otherwise displeasing for authorities that reporting might be”.
Amna Guellali
In a report published on 20th April 2010, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression called on governments to decriminalize defamation, and stated that “no criminal or civil action for defamation should be admissible in respect of a civil servant or the performance of his or her duties.”
Article 14 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to trial before a “competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law”. Because Tunisia’s President has the final word on the appointment of judges and prosecutors in the military justice system, Tunisia’s military courts do not fulfil the requirement of independence under international human rights law.
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