Today, Wednesday May 22, the trial of Saadia Mosbah, one of the figures in the fight against anti-black racism in Tunisia, opens in Tunis. At the head of an association denouncing negrophobia – whether it affects black Tunisians or nationals of West and Central African countries established or passing through Tunisia – she is being prosecuted for money laundering. Human rights defenders see these prosecutions as an attempt by those in power to silence this association deemed dissident.
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With our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem
It has already been two weeks since the face of the fight against anti-Black racism has been detained in Tunisia. In addition to suspicions of money laundering, the 64-year-old activist risks – according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) – new prosecutions without these having yet been specified. Prosecutions which come at a time when several Tunisian associations helping migrants are accused of facilitating their establishment in Tunisia.
Since his arrest in early May, Saadia Mosbah, winner of the American Secretary of State’s Prize for the Fight against Racism this summer, received a lot of support from abroad, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris. Support which, paradoxically, can weaken its defense while Tunisia is immersed in a climate of extensive conspiracy.
The association of which she is president, Mnemty, was one of the rare Tunisian civil society associations that stepped up last year following the remarks of President Kaïs Saïed evoking the theory of the great replacement in Tunisia.
Observers of Tunisian political life believe that the association is today paying for these positions opposed to the regime’s policy.
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