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French National Detained in Tunisia on Breach of State Security Charges

Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)
Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)
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French National Detained in Tunisia on Breach of State Security Charges

Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)
Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)

 

French PhD student Victor Dupont was detained in Tunisia on breach of state security charges 12 days ago, and French authorities are trying to negotiate his release, the director of his research lab, Vincent Geisser, said.
Dupont, 27, was arrested just before midday on Oct. 19 at his home in a suburb of Tunis along with three friends visiting from France, according to one of the friends, Edouard Matalon, a Paris-based librarian.
Matalon was released the same day after questioning, according to Reuters.
“This is an attack on academic freedom,” said Geisser, director of the French Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds at Aix-Marseille University.
The Tunisian authorities were not immediately available for comment. The French ministry of foreign affairs did not reply to a request for comment.
But several Tunisian lawyers linked Dupont’s arrest to the PhD he started in 2022, and which looks at the socio-economic and life trajectories of those who took part in social movements of the 2011 revolution that toppled President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

 

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Lebanese PM's Office Denies US Asked Lebanon to Declare Unilateral Ceasefire with Israel

27 March 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a press conference following a meeting of cabinet. (Dalati & Nohra)
27 March 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a press conference following a meeting of cabinet. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Lebanese PM's Office Denies US Asked Lebanon to Declare Unilateral Ceasefire with Israel

27 March 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a press conference following a meeting of cabinet. (Dalati & Nohra)
27 March 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a press conference following a meeting of cabinet. (Dalati & Nohra)

The office of Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati on Friday denied that the US had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire, after two sources told Reuters that a US envoy had made the request to inject momentum into stalled talks on a deal to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.
In a statement to Reuters, Mikati's office said the government's stance was clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between the two foes in 2006.

Earlier, a senior Lebanese political source and a senior diplomat said the US had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel to revive stalled talks to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
They said the effort was communicated by US envoy Amos Hochstein to Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati this week, as the US stepped up diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Mikati's office in a statement to Reuters denied the US had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire. It said the government's stance was clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides, and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between the two foes in 2006.
The US embassy in Beirut did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The sources said the US sought to persuade Beirut to take back some initiative in the talks, particularly given the perception that Israel will likely continue military operations that have already killed most of Hezbollah's leadership and destroyed much of the country's south.
Lebanon's armed forces are not involved in the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israeli military sites a year ago in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.
Any effort to reach a ceasefire would need a green light from Hezbollah, which has ministers in Lebanon's cabinet and whose members and allies hold a significant number of seats in Lebanon's parliament.
Diplomats mediate with Hezbollah through the group's ally, Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri. Hezbollah has said it backs efforts by Berri to reach a ceasefire but says it must meet certain parameters, without providing details.
But a unilateral declaration was seen as a non-starter in Lebanon, the sources said, where it would likely be equated with a surrender.
DIPLOMATIC INITIATIVE
Another diplomat told Reuters that Hochstein had made a similar proposal months ago to Mikati and Berri.
Hochstein told them that if Hezbollah unilaterally declared a ceasefire, he "could have something to present" to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a diplomatic initiative.
"His exact words were, 'help me, help you," the diplomat said, adding that then-Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah rejected the idea. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air attack on Sept. 27 on Beirut's southern suburbs.
Despite its losses, Hezbollah has maintained that the Iran-backed group's chain of command is intact and its fighters have kept Israeli forces making ground incursions into Lebanon at bay.
The US has been pushing for a 60-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as a prelude to a fuller implementation of 1701, sources told Reuters this week.
Hochstein was in Israel on Thursday with White House envoy Brett McGurk, but they did not continue on to Lebanon.
Speaking about Lebanon on Thursday, Netanyahu said that "agreements, documents, proposals....are not the main point."
"The main point is our ability and determination to enforce security, thwart attacks against us, and act against the arming of our enemies, as necessary and despite any pressure and constraints. This is the main point," he said.