SSaturday night, May 11, lawyer and columnist Sonia Dahmani was arrested by safety forces on the Lawyer's House in Tunis. In query, sarcastic remarks concerning the state of affairs within the nation. The scene was filmed by the tv channel France 24, which was pressured to cease its dwell broadcast. “Police assault on the Lawyer’s House”, situated reverse the courthouse in Tunis, “lawyers attacked and kidnapping of colleague Sonia Dahmani (driven) to an unknown location”, indicated Dalila Msaddek, member from his protection workforce on Facebook.
Islam Hamza, one other defender of the lawyer, confirmed to Agence France-Presse “the arrest of Ms. Dahmani by police officers”. The steady information channel France 24, whose journalists had been on web site to cowl the motion in assist of the lawyer, was dwell on the time of the arrest. The channel strongly protested in a press launch in opposition to the angle of the hooded cops who, in accordance with it, “then headed towards the channel's team, telling them to cut the camera under the strong protests of Maryline Dumas”, the journalist. on the spot.
1/2 Incredible dwell sequence on @France24_fr. While our correspondent in #Tunisia Mr. Dumas tells me concerning the destiny of the lawyer S. Dahmani – the visor of Tunisian justice and refugee inside the House of Lawyers – the lawyer is arrested by masked cops pic.twitter.com/3uk9tFfrDo
— Achren Verdian (@AchrenVerdian) May 11, 2024
“The police ended up violently tearing the camera from its tripod, stopping the live broadcast of the scene, and arrested Hamdi Tlili. The cameraman was released after around ten minutes and the France 24 correspondent is fine,” added the channel, which broadcast photos of the scene on X. France 24 “strongly condemns this obstruction of press freedom and this brutal and intimidating intervention by the police preventing its journalists from exercising their profession, while they were covering a demonstration of lawyers for respect for justice and in support of freedom of expression,” added the chain.
Remarks deemed “degrading”
According to a number of media, Sonia Dahmani is the topic of an investigation specifically for disseminating “false information with the aim of endangering public safety” and “inciting hate speech”, underneath Decree-Law 54 This decree, promulgated in September 2022 by President Kaïs Saïed, punishes anybody who makes use of info and communication networks to “write, produce, disseminate (or) spread false news” with as much as 5 years in jail. […] with the goal of violating the rights of others or harming public security.”
Tuesday, throughout a tv present, Sonia Dahmani mockingly mentioned “what extraordinary country are we talking about?” », in response to a different columnist who had simply acknowledged that migrants from a number of sub-Saharan African international locations had been looking for to settle in Tunisia. This assertion was judged by some customers on social networks as “degrading” for the picture of Tunisia.
READ ALSO Illiberal melody in TunisiaOn Thursday, Sonia Dahmani acquired a summons, which she didn’t reply to, to look on Friday earlier than an investigating choose with out the explanations being specified, in accordance with Ms.e Msaddek. Sonia Dahmani defined to the press that she refused to look in court docket “without knowing the reasons for this summons”. Due to his absence, the investigating choose in control of this case issued a warrant for his arrest.
Sixty arrests in a 12 months and a half
In a 12 months and a half, greater than 60 individuals, together with journalists, legal professionals and opponents of Kaïs Saïed, have been prosecuted on the idea of this textual content, in accordance with the National Union of Journalists.
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/tunisie-une-avocate-violemment-arretee-par-la-police-en-plein-direct-12-05-2024-2559951_24.php