TUNIS: Tunisia freed prominent lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a vocal critic of President Kais Saied, on Thursday after a year and a half in prison and she said she hoped her release would pave the way for dozens of other critics to walk free.
Dahmani, who is also a media commentator, is widely seen as a leading dissenting voice in Tunisia, and her arrest last year prompted local protests demanding her release and international criticism.
She was convicted for comments during a television appearance that questioned the government’s stance on undocumented African migrants in Tunisia. The court said the comments had insulted her country and spread false information intended to harm it.
As Dahmani was released from Manouba prison, dozens of her family members and activists chanted: “The police state’s era of repression is over.”
She told reporters, “I hope this is the end of the nightmare for me and all the other prisoners.”
Her lawyer Sami Ben Ghazi said the justice minister had issued a release order under a system that enables prisoners to apply for release after serving half their sentences.
The Journalists’ Syndicate welcomed Dahmani’s release and called for the release of other detained journalists.
Tunisia frees prominent lawyer Sonia Dahmani
https://arab.news/5qxwh
Tunisia frees prominent lawyer Sonia Dahmani
- Sonia Dahmani spent a year and a half in prison after making televised comments about the government’s stance on undocumented African migrants
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 IS suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
