Tunisian journalist Salah Attia has been taken into custody by military justice, which has opened an investigation after his statements about the Tunisian army on Al-Jazeera television, his lawyer Samir Ben Amor told AFP on Sunday.
The military prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation against Salah Attia, a journalist in a local daily, following remarks made on Friday on the Qatari channel Al Jazeera, Ben Amor said.
The journalist stated in particular that the President Kais Saied had “ officially requested military force to intervene against the Tunisian General Labor Union », the powerful trade union center UGTT, and surround its premises before a general strike scheduled for June 16. According to this journalist, who opposes the Tunisian president’s coup of July 25, 2021, the army informed the UGTT of its refusal to meet this request from the president.
” It looks like we are in the last days of the regime of (deposed President Zine el Abidine) Ben Ali “, adds the journalist on Al Jazeera to describe the situation in Tunisia.
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Following these statements, Salah Attia was arrested by military justice, which decided on Saturday to place him in police custody when he refused to reveal his sources, according to his lawyer. The journalist is suspected in particular “ of harming the army “, and D'” incite Tunisians to violence “, according to his lawyer. He will be brought before a military judge on Monday who could place him in pre-trial detention. On Saturday, the UGTT denied in a press release the ” false statements from the journalist.
Salah Attia is not the first journalist prosecuted by military justice. In April, a television journalist was sentenced to four months in prison for “ insulted towards the Head of State, after having intervened in a television program. He appealed and is free pending the outcome of the procedure.
Local and international NGOs have regularly denounced in recent years the legal proceedings initiated against civilians by military courts, believing that they have intensified since the July 25 coup by President Saïed who assumed full powers. Members of Parliament dissolved by the President have also been prosecuted by military justice.
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