NAIROBI: The families of Tunisian opposition figures detained in a government crackdown filed a case with Africa’s human rights court on Wednesday seeking the immediate release of their loved ones.
Since early February, the authorities in the North African country have arrested more than 20 political opponents and other personalities, sparking condemnations from the international community and rights groups.
Those detained include Rached Ghannouchi, the former speaker of parliament and one of the highest profile critics of President Kais Saied, who dissolved the assembly in July 2021 as part of a power grab allowing him to rule by decree.
Ghannouchi, 81, the head of Tunisia’s Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha, was arrested in April and sentenced on May 15 to one year in prison on terrorism-related charges.
His daughter Yusra Ghannouchi said the charges against her father were “politically motivated and fabricated” and part of a bid by Saied to “eliminate the opposition”.
Saied claims those detained in the crackdown were “terrorists” involved in a “conspiracy against state security”.
Opponents have dubbed his actions a “coup” and a return to autocratic rule in the only democracy that emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings in the region more than a decade ago.
Yusra Ghannouchi and other relatives of the detainees filed the case in the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, as part of a global campaign for their freedom.
“We hope this will lead to their release and to justice for them,” she told AFP in Nairobi on the eve of a trip to Arusha.
“They are not silent and we will not be silent,” said Ghannouchi, a 45-year-old mother of three who lives in Britain.
She said the relatives were also calling for the US, the EU and Britain to impose targeted sanctions against Saied and several of his ministers who are “all implicated in human rights violations”.
Their British lawyer Rodney Dixon said they wanted the Arusha court to find that Tunisia’s actions were in breach of Africa’s human rights charter and make a provisional order for the release of the detainees.
“They are trying to fight their cases in Tunisia but the obstacle is that every door has been shut,” he said, adding that the case in Arusha was on behalf of six of those rounded up. “There is no justice through the system there... that's why they have to come to the African court to seek its intervention.”
He said those behind bars were not getting regular access to lawyers, and were having difficulty getting proper medical care.
“In the case of some of the detainees there has been very poor treatment, in the case of one, an allegation of torture will also be raised at the Africa court.”
Ghannouchi said she was worried about her father's health as he suffers from hypertension and “he is no longer a young man”.
Ghannouchi was imprisoned twice in the 1980s for clandestine political activities before going into exile for 20 years and then returning following the toppling of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the 2011 Arab Spring revolt.
Tunisia is one of only six African countries that have fully signed up to the court.
Dixon said he expected the court to hear the case in June.
Families of Tunisia detainees go to Africa court to seek release
https://arab.news/6ugr7
Families of Tunisia detainees go to Africa court to seek release
- Tunisian authorities have arrested more than 20 political opponents sparking condemnations from the international community
- Those detained include Rached Ghannouchi the former speaker of parliament
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
