GENEVA: The United Nations human rights chief on Thursday condemned the conviction of around 40 Tunisian opposition figures, saying their right to a fair trial was violated.
“The process was marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights, raising serious concerns about political motivations,” the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
A Tunisian court on Saturday handed down sentences of between 13 and 66 years to defendants accused of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group.”
Among those sentenced were vocal critics of President Kais Saied, well-known opposition figures, lawyers and businesspeople, some of them already behind bars, while others have been living in exile.
Lawyers representing the accused and their relatives have denounced the trial as “fabricated” and “unfounded,” and pledged to appeal the rulings.
Turk on Thursday urged “Tunisia to refrain from using broad national security and counterterrorism legislation to silence dissent and curb civic space.”
The arrest of Ahmed Souab, 70, a defense lawyer in the trial charged with terrorism-related offenses over criticism he made of the court, raises concerns for lawyers’ ability to safely represent clients, Turk said.
“Charges must be dropped where there is no sufficient evidence of illegal acts committed,” he said.
Turk demanded all defendants be guaranteed their full rights to due process and a fair trial during the appeal process, while calling for an end to wider political persecution.
Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings began.
Tunisia mass conspiracy trial ‘marred by violations’: UN rights chief
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Tunisia mass conspiracy trial ‘marred by violations’: UN rights chief
- “The process was marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights, raising serious concerns about political motivations,” Turk said
- Turk demanded all defendants be guaranteed their full rights
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon
- “Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF soldiers in a Merkava tank,” UNIFIL said
- It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory
BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s army to “cease aggressive behavior.”
It is the latest such incident reported by the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
“Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de facto border.
“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement said.
It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said.
Last month UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots.
In October, UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the 2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce.
“We call on the IDF to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire.
It emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.
