Tunisia: a journalist in police custody after statements on army

Salah Attia said on the Al-Jazeera channel that President Saïed had officially asked to surround the premises of the Ugtt union center before the strike scheduled for June 16.

Le Monde with AFP

A Tunisian journalist was placed in police custody by military justice which opened an investigation after his statements on the Tunisian army on Arab television, his lawyer, Samir Samir on Sunday June 12, Ben Amor.

The military prosecutor’s office opened a judicial information against Salah Attia, journalist in a local daily newspaper, following remarks made Friday on the Qatari al-Jazeera channel, said Ben Amor.

The journalist said in particular that President Kaïs Saïed had “officially asked the military force to intervene against the Tunisian General Union of Labor”, the powerful Central Union Ugtt, and to surround her premises before a strike General scheduled for June 16.

According to this journalist, who opposes the coup de force by Mr. Saïed of July 25, 2021, the army would have informed the UGTT of his refusal in the face of this request from the President.

“It looks like we are in the last days of Ben Ali’s regime,” said the journalist on al-Jazeera to describe the situation in Tunisia.

“false statements”

Following these statements, the journalist was arrested by the military justice which decided on Saturday to place him in police custody when he refused to unveil his sources, according to his lawyer. The journalist is suspected in particular “of having affected the army”, and “encourage Tunisians to violence”, according to his lawyer. He will be referred on Monday before a military judge who could place him in pre-trial detention.

Saturday, the UGTT denied in a statement of the journalist’s “false statements”. Mr. Attia is not the first journalist prosecuted by military justice.

In April, a television journalist was sentenced to four months in prison for “offense” towards the Head of State, after intervening in a television program. He appealed and is free while waiting for the rest of the procedure.

of local and international NGOs have regularly denounced in recent years the legal proceedings engaged against civilians by military courts, believing that they have intensified since the coup de force on July 25 of President Saïed who arranged the Full powers. Deputies from Parliament dissolved by the President were also prosecuted by military justice.

/Media reports.