Tunisian politicians and human rights activists said that the heat wave sweeping the country threatens the lives of detainees, while the lawyer of the leader of the Ennahda movement confirmed that he fainted inside his prison , prompting his media advisor to issue an international appeal to save him.
Following her visit to Mornaguia prison near the capital, lawyer Haifa Chebbi, daughter of National Salvation Front leader Ahmed Najib Chebbi, said: “I feel pain for my father, my uncle (Republican Party leader Issam Chebbi), and my friends whom I left in temperatures exceeding fifty degrees.”
She also confirmed in a video on her Facebook account that she saw Ghannouchi faint after returning from the hospital due to the extreme heat.
A large number of politicians reacted to Chabbi's video, with the founder of the Democratic Party, lawyer Mohamed Abbou, writing, “Oh, my God! Oh, Haifa, don't cry. May God curse the oppressors, and may God curse us all without exception if your father, your uncle, and all the victims of the directives are not released safely from prison. We will talk about justice and rulings on the day the country is liberated from the rule of absurdity, but now these are systematic detention crimes that may be described as crimes against humanity.”
He added: “Let the voices of the patriots rise up until the suffering ends with the departure of the one who is tampering with our country, and so that no one after him dares to rule it with crime, relying on the power that was made to enforce the law, not to protect the project of persecuting its people.”
Former minister Khaled Chouket wrote: “History will one day record that Tunisia put in prisons and detention centers the best of its men and women, its elders and its most virtuous, those whom history testifies to for their heroic, manly, and courageous stances, to satisfy the whims of those who never had a stance or a word in the face of tyranny and despotism until time enabled them to become tyrants and despots. And there is no greater calamity than this calamity.”
The “Freedom for Tunisia” Observatory called for “the immediate release of all political prisoners arbitrarily detained, giving priority to the elderly and sick, given the exceptional health risks posed by the heat wave. All detainees should be provided with urgent and independent healthcare, and the most vulnerable cases should be subjected to continuous medical monitoring.”
He also called for “immediate measures to improve detention conditions, including providing ventilation, cooling and drinking water, reducing overcrowding, ensuring outings that are appropriate to the climatic conditions, and enabling independent national and international bodies to visit prisons and examine the health and humanitarian conditions of detainees.”
The Observatory called for “an independent investigation into the suitability of current detention conditions to national and international standards, and the determination of responsibilities in the event of any proven negligence that endangers the lives or safety of prisoners. It also called for respect for the obligations incumbent upon the Tunisian state under the Nelson Mandela Rules, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention against Torture, in a manner that guarantees the protection of the right to life and human dignity for all persons deprived of their liberty.”
Meanwhile, Maher Al-Madhioub, the former deputy and media advisor to Ghannouchi, appealed to world leaders to intervene to “save” Ghannouchi, who he said was being subjected to “unprecedented persecution in his nineties, because of a speech in which he called for rejecting division, strengthening the foundations of coexistence, and consolidating civil peace in Tunisian society.”
Al-Madhoub added: “Time waits for no one, and the danger of death, as a result of neglect and abuse, is rapidly and painfully approaching Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi. The insistence on continuing his imprisonment, his abuse, and the revenge taken against him for his adherence to his positions and his rejection of unconstitutional changes through peaceful civil resistance, represents an extremely dangerous escalation and raises painful questions about the fate of justice, the rule of law, and human dignity.”
He continued, saying: “Given this dangerous situation, the death of a man of Ghannouchi’s stature inside his prison cell will not be a passing event, but will leave a deep mark on the conscience of millions of Tunisians, and on the conscience of everyone who believes in the values of freedom, dignity and justice. So what are we going to do before silence triumphs over conscience,and the flood of injustice and darkness sweeps us all away?”
The Tunisian Human Rights League called on President Kais Saied to issue a special pardon for prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, given the poor conditions they are living in, coinciding with the heat wave hitting the country.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights said: “In light of the exceptional heat wave and the frequent water and electricity outages that Tunisia is experiencing, the League is launching an urgent appeal to the public authorities and public opinion to intervene immediately to protect female and male prisoners from conditions that have become a real threat to their lives and safety.”
She added that over the years, through her visits to prison institutions and her reports, she had documented “harsh detention conditions inside prisons, characterized by terrible overcrowding, cramped cells, lack of adequate ventilation, lack of health care, and high temperatures and humidity, which put thousands of detainees in situations that do not comply with the Tunisian constitution or with the state’s international obligations, most notably the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
The association also drew attention to the harsh and humiliating conditions suffered by the families of female and male prisoners during visits, and denounced the Ministry of Justice's prevention of the association's delegations from visiting prisons to see the conditions of the prisoners.
She called on President Kais Saied to “exercise his constitutional powers by issuing a pardon that includes female and male prisoners of opinion and expression, detainees or convicts in cases with a political background, and common law prisoners who meet the legal and humanitarian conditions to benefit from the pardon, in order to alleviate overcrowding and embody the values of justice, reconciliation and equity.”
The Ministry of Justice also called for “reversing its unilateral decision to prevent the association from visiting prison institutions and resuming work on the memorandum of understanding, and taking urgent measures to improve detention conditions, and ensuring ventilation, water supply, and health and medical care.”
She called on the judges to “expand the application of alternative measures and penalties, temporary release whenever its legal conditions are met, referral while at liberty, and all other non-custodial procedures that contribute to reducing overcrowding inside prisons, especially during this critical period.”
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