In Tunisia, ten months after the wave of arrests in the ranks of the opposition, weariness is affecting the families of the detainees. That of the lawyer and former deputy and minister Ghazi Chaouachi in particular launched an appeal to the Tunisian President to request his release.
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With our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem
Ten months already since his father, lawyer Ghazi Chaouachi, is imprisoned. Mentally exhausted, his son Elyès Chaouachi expresses his concern on the airwaves of Tunisian radio IFM: “ Ghazi Chaouachi is now threatening to sew his mouth shut. He refuses to meet anyone now. He refuses to speak. He doesn’t shower anymore, nothing. He said he was not going to commit suicide or go on a hunger strike but was going to live on bread and water. He stopped taking his medication. »
Ghazi Chaouachi is accused, with five other opponents of Kaïs Saïed, of “ conspiracy against state security “. Amnesty International denounces arrests “ arbitrary ”, as well as accusations “ forged from scratch “.
Faced with this situation and in desperation, Elyès Chaouachi decided to launch an appeal to Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed. “ The President of the Republic must take a position on this issue. Free the prisoners. Leave them at liberty and forbid them from traveling, forbid them from appearing in the media, put them under house arrest but let them out! »
Requested by families of detainees, the African Court of Human Rights, based in Arusha in Tanzania, had ordered Tunis to improve the conditions of detention of prisoners and to clarify the reasons for their arrest. It was last September, the decision had raised the hopes of the families of the detainees. However, this has since subsided.