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Issam Chebbi

Detained

Card Contents

About

Position/Affiliation
Secretary-General of the opposition Republican Party (Al-Jomhouri) and member of the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly 2011-2014. He is the brother of Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the opposition coalition the National Salvation Front.

Date of birth
December 23, 1957

Profession
Writer and legal notary

Nationality
Tunisian

Date Targeted

February 22, 2023

Current Status

Detained

Charges

Conspiracy against state security, under 10 chapters of the Tunisian Penal Code, including Article 72, which stipulates the death penalty for attempting to “alter the state body.”

Cases and Violations

Judicial authority
Anti-terrorism judicial pole 

Case details
“Conspiracy against state security” case (1)

February 22, 2023: Tunisian police arrested Chebbi, as part of the wave of arrests that began in the same month and targeted a number of opposition politicians, media figures, and lawyers. Lawyers confirmed that the police arrested Chebbi in front of a shopping center while he was with his wife. Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the Salvation Front and brother of Issam Chebbi, said that a group of 20 security personnel intercepted his brother Issam when he was with his wife on the street and arrested him after searching his house. The Republican Party confirmed that its Secretary-General, Issam Chebbi, was arrested by the anti-terrorism police.

February 25, 2023: The first investigating judge in Office 36 of the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole issued a prison order against Chebbi. Wissem Saghir, the official spokesman for the Republican Party, explained that the initial hearing was limited to “four questions, which concern his meeting with Khayam Al-Turki at his home, and whether Khayam Al-Turki arranged a meeting between Chebbi and an advisor to the American embassy in Tunisia, which Chebbi denied, even though the law does not prohibit such meetings, then about his relationship with Kamal Ltaief.”

22nd March 2023: The families of a number of detainees, including Chebbi, submitted a request to the UK Government asking for sanctions to be imposed on Kais Saied (President of the Republic of Tunisia, Head of State, Head of Government and Commander-in-chief of the Tunisian Armed Forces, 23 October 2019 – present); Ridha Gharsallaoui (Former Acting Interior Minister, 29 July 2021 – 11 October 2021); Taoufik Charfeddine (Interior Minister, 11 October 2021 – 18 March 2023); Kamel Feki (Interior Minister, 18 March – present); Leïla Jaffel (Justice Minister, 11 October 2021 – present); and Imed Memmich (Minister of National Defense, 11 October 2021 –  present).

The sanctions request was made on behalf of: Noureddine Bhiri, Judge Bechir Akremi, Said Ferjani MP, Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Chaima Issa, Ridha Belhaj, Rached Ghannouchi, and the deceased opposition party member Ridha Bouzayene.

26th April 2023: An application for sanctions was filed at the EU. 

May 26, 2023: The official spokesman for the Republican Party stressed that Issam Chebbi has been in prison for 94 days and that he had not been interrogated after the initial hearing.

July 13, 2023: The indictment chamber of the Tunisian Court of Appeal decided to reject the defense’s request regarding the release of Issam Chebbi, Khayyam Al-Turki, Abdelhamid Jelassi, Ridha Belhaj, Ghazi Chaouachi, and Jawhar Ben Mbarek.

August 22, 2023: The investigating judge in the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole ordered the extension of the detention of detainees for another 4 months pending investigation in the case of “conspiracy against state security”, after they had spent 6 months in detention, including Issam Chebbi.

September 21: The indictment chamber of the Court of Appeal in Tunis refused to release the defendants in the “conspiracy against state security” case, including Issam Chebbi. The court’s decision came in response to the appeal submitted against the investigating judge’s decision to extend the period of pre-trial detention for a number of political detainees.

October 2, 2023 – Chebbi started a hunger strike: The Defense Committee for Detainees said that political leaders Issam Chebbi, Abdelhamid Jelassi, Ghazi Chaouachi, Khayam Al-Turki, and Ridha Belhaj informed the committee that they “would be on a hunger strike starting Monday morning, in protest against the continuing judicial farce judicial used by the authorities to deprive them of their freedom for many months without providing any evidence for the accusations brought against them, and to demand an end to the injustice imposed on them and their release.”

October 12, 2023: The “Detained Political Leaders’ Defense Committee in Tunisia” in what is known as the “Conspiracy Against State Security Case” confirmed that political prisoner Jaouhar Ben Mbarek and his fellow hunger strikers agreed to suspend their strike after several appeals were sent to them by human rights and political organizations. 

November 22, 2023: The Indictment Chamber of the Court of Appeal decided to reject all requests for the release of detainees, including Chebbi, as well as a request to lift the travel ban on one of the defendants in the same case and to repeal the order banning him from appearing in public places.

 December 21, 2023: The investigating judge at the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole decided to extend the pre-trial detention of political opponents accused in the conspiracy case for an additional 4 months.

January 11, 2023: The indictment chamber responsible for examining terrorism cases at the Court of Appeal in Tunis issued a decision supporting the decision of the investigating judge at the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole to extend the pretrial detention for an additional period of 4 months against defendants detained in connection with what is known as the case of “conspiring against the security of the State”, including Chebbi.

Breaches
Lawyer Amine Bouker indicated that the searches, arrests, and raids that targeted Issam Chebbi and Chaima Issa all took place outside the framework of legal procedures, as he put it (in an interview with Al Jazeera

Poor living conditions: The Republican Party announced, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, that its Secretary-General, Issam Chebbi, “was subjected to abuse by being transferred to one of the rooms of common crime prisoners in humiliating and degrading conditions, in furtherance of the policy of retribution and seeking to undermine his morale.”

Very poor living conditions: Lawyer Ines Harrath mentioned, in a post on her Facebook, after visiting Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, Ridha Belhaj, Issam Chebbi, Ghazi Chaouachi, Lazhar Akremi, and after meeting colleagues who visited Khayam Al-Turki, that they are “deprived of the right to bathe and sun exposure, and they were transferred to extremely dirty rooms full of bugs and insects and not equipped with any health facilities, as it is necessary to relieve human needs in a hole in the ground, in addition to depriving them of the simplest prisoner rights such as medical treatment”, according to her confirmation. Ines Harrath also considered that “there are instructions from the regime to the prison administration to endanger the lives of political detainees by placing them with carefully selected common crime prisoners, most of whom were imprisoned for premeditated murder cases”, according to her post.

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Call to Action

Website petition: Freedom for prisoners of conscience and activists in Tunisia!

Tunisia is no longer the Arab exception that inspired the world in 2011 with a heroic revolution that overthrew the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled for nearly 23 years after seizing power on November 7, 1987, in a coup against Habib Bourguiba.

In a similar and perhaps more dangerous move, on the night of July 25, 2021, Tunisian President Kais Saied carried out a “constitutional coup” in accordance with his personal interpretation of Article 80 of the 2014 Revolutionary Constitution, announcing that he had taken a set of exceptional measures due to the “imminent danger” that threatens Tunisia without providing any details or reasons.

In accordance with these measures, Saied dismissed the government and the prime minister Hichem Mechichi who was present at the National Security Council that night at the Carthage Palace, and claimed that he had contacted the Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi (leader of the Ennahdha party) to consult with him in accordance with what is stipulated by the constitution, a claim which Ghannouchi denied since the call was general and did not include anything about exceptional measures or any consultation on the matter. The president suspended Parliament and later dissolved it in March 2022.

Not only did Saied seek to bypass his powers and the articles of the Constitution, which he swore to protect before the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, but he went on to dismiss and change the composition of the Supreme Judicial Council after redefining the judiciary it as a “function” rather than an independent authority. He further replaced members of the Supreme Electoral Commission in preparation for the referendum he held in order to vote on a constitution that he wrote himself after dismissing the proposals of the drafting committee he had himself appointed. Then legislative elections were held over two rounds, in which the participation rate did not exceed 8% of the total number of voters, with the Election Commission later announcing that it had reached 11%, which is the lowest participation rate in Tunisia and globally.

On February 11, President Saied’s regime launched a campaign of protests that has not stopped since, against political leaders, media figures, journalists, judges and senior officials and civil servants, for charges of “conspiring against the security of the state and committing an offensive act against the President of the Republic,” in addition to other charges that were referred to the military prosecution, leading one to wonder about the implication of the Tunisian army in the actions taken by Saied.

The arbitrary arrests were marred by several procedural violations amid criticism from prominent international organizations and observatories in the field of human rights. The standards of litigation and detention period and conditions were not respected. Prosecution and harassment sometimes extended to the detainees’ families, and no evidence, and in many cases, no charges against them were presented.

Moreover trade unions and political parties continue to be subjected to constant harassment and restrictions. Saied continues to target all “intermediary bodies” accusing them of “collaboration” or “treason”. Civil society associations have also been subjected to prosecution, arbitrary arrests and deprivation from representation, in a context of of increasing violence in society due to the authorities’ adoption of racist and discriminatory speeches and rhetoric inciting infighting and violating human dignity.

In light of the above, we, the undersigned, demand the following:

Call for the immediate release of all political detainees, immediately and unconditionally. We also urge the Tunisian authorities to recognize the national and the international human rights treaties they have ratified.
Call on the Tunisian authorities to stop dismantling the nascent democracy and put an end to unfair trials and prosecutions against political opponents of the regime and anyone who criticises it.
Call on all activists and observers to join the national movement for restoring democracy and ending authoritarian rule that has taken Tunisia back to despotism, injustice, and violations of rights and freedoms.