عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Tunisian Opposition Detainees Start Hunger Strike in Prison

Six Tunisian opposition figures began an open hunger strike on Monday. (Tunisian media) 
Six Tunisian opposition figures began an open hunger strike on Monday. (Tunisian media) 
TT
TT

Tunisian Opposition Detainees Start Hunger Strike in Prison

Six Tunisian opposition figures began an open hunger strike on Monday. (Tunisian media) 
Six Tunisian opposition figures began an open hunger strike on Monday. (Tunisian media) 

Six Tunisian opposition figures began an open hunger strike on Monday to denounce their one-year detention without formal charges or trial.

The detainees, held on charges of incitement and "plotting against state security", released a statement asking for their immediate release. They also demanded authorities to terminate the security and judicial prosecutions of all politicians and civil society activists who also suffer injustice.

In the statement, the six detainees demanded that the authorities cease meddling in judicial affairs, “stop threatening judges and intimidating defense lawyers held for expressing freedom of speech.”

The detainees include politician Khayam Turki, dissident and politician Abdelhamid Jlassi, Secretary-General of the Republican Party, lawyer Issam Chebbi, former Secretary-General of the Tayyar Party, lawyer Ghazi Chaouachi and lawyer Ridha Belhadj.

They also include leading member of the National Salvation Front and law professor Jaouhar Ben Mbarek.

Ben Mbarek’s sister, Dalida, who is a lawyer and member of the detainees' defense team, said: “The detainees consider themselves prisoners and hostages in the Mornaguia Prison as they have been detained for 356 days without a committing a crime. To date, there has been no evidence that any of the detainees had committed a crime.”

The opposition accuses President Kais Saied, who overhauled the political system in 2021 “to rectify the course of the revolution and combat corruption”, of fabricating charges against political dissidents and pressuring the judiciary.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
TT
TT

Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israeli forces pounded southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, and ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.

Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy will lead to an imminent ceasefire.

US mediator Amos Hochstein said this week in Beirut that a truce was "within our grasp". He travelled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, the news outlet Axios said.

His trip was aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon's southern border, which escalated when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.

Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six km (four miles) from the border.

Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday. Lebanese security sources told Reuters Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam before attacking the town.

Four Italian soldiers were lightly injured after two rockets exploded at a UNIFIL peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for UNIFIL said on Friday.

Italian sources said an investigation was under way. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian media that Hezbollah might be responsible for the attack.

Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.

EVACUATION WARNINGS AND STRIKES

Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel's north because of rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.

Abeer Darwich, a resident of a building that was hit in Beirut southern suburbs on Friday, had to leave her apartment immediately after an evacuation warning from Israel's military.

She stood watching while an Israeli strike pounded the high rise building into dust.

"Do you know that most of the apartments' owners took credit to buy those houses? Life savings are gone, memories and safety ... which Israel decided to steal from us," Darwich said .

Evacuation orders were issued on X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the center of a multi-storey building, which toppled in a cloud of smoke.