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Lazhar Akremi

Released on bail, under administrative monitoring (after spending five months in prison under pre-trial detention)

About

Position / Party / Association: Political activist opposed to President Kais Saied

Date of birth: March 6, 1959

Profession: Lawyer and politician who previously held the position of Secretary of State at the Interior Ministry

Nationality: Tunisian

Date Targeted

February 13, 2023

Current Status

Released on bail, under administrative monitoring (after spending five months in prison under pre-trial detention)

Charges

Prosecuted on the basis of Article 128 of the Penal Code and Article 86 of the Communications Code.

Attempting to change the nature of the state under 10 articles of the Penal Code, including Article 72, which stipulates the death penalty for attempting to “change the nature of the state”.

Cases and Violations

First case:

Competent judicial authority: Civil Judiciary / Indictment Chamber of the Court of Appeal

Case details: November 13, 2022: Lakremi wrote in a post published on his personal Facebook account that the Tunis branch of the Tunisian Association of Lawyers informed him that he was being referred for investigation because of a political statement on the radio (Hakaiek Online) following a complaint submitted by the Minister of Justice, Leila Jaffel, against him on the basis of a media statement in which he commented on the work of the inspectorate of the Ministry of Justice and described some of the judges as “corrupt” although they were not dismissed, according to what he said (Al-Sabah).
December 15, 2022: He was interrogated by the first investigating judge in Office 21 of the Tunis Court of First Instance and kept on bail.

Second case:

Lawyers (defence): Samir Dilou, Samir Ben Omar, Abderrazzak Kilani

Details of cases: February 13, 2023: His house was raided and he was arrested.
On the same day of his arrest, Lakremi had written on Facebook: “Neither Kais Saied nor his regime, nor his grassroots or anarchist structure, have been able to answer people’s questions about high prices, employment, and the shortage of basic goods and hence in such a situation, it was necessary to present scapegoats”.

The judge interrogated Lazhar Lakremi solely regarding a coffee meeting with politician and opposition figure Khayyam Al-Turki. (Amnesty)

February 27, 2023: The investigating judge at the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole issued a detention warrant against Lakremi.

June 7, 2023: The date for the interrogation hearing before the investigating judge in Office 36 of the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole, which was scheduled for Thursday, June 8, 2023, was postponed to a later date to be determined. Lazhar Lakremi had previously refused to appear before the investigating judge, on April 28, 2023, “because of… Failure to provide a transport vehicle that respects the minimum humanitarian standards for transportation from prison to the Judicial pole,” according to a statement by the defense team. Akremi’s defense added that if there was an attempt to use what it called a “torture car” to transport Lakremi from prison to the headquarters of the anti-terrorism pole, he would refuse to board it and therefore the session would not be held, according to what was stated in the text of the report (Ultra Tunisia; Samir Dilou’s Facebook post).

July 13, 2023: The indictment chamber of the Tunisian Court of Appeal decided to grant the defense’s request regarding the release of Lazhar Lakremi, with a travel ban on him and a ban on appearing in public places.

Breaches: Very poor living conditions: Lawyer Ines Harrath stated, in her Facebook post, after visiting Jawhar Ben Mbarek, Ridha Belhaj, Issam Chebbi, Ghazi Chaouachi, and Lazhar Akremi, and after meeting colleagues who visited Al-Turki, that they were “deprived of the right to wash and exercise, and they were transferred to extremely dirty rooms full of insects and not equipped with any sanitary facilities, as human needs must be relieved in a hole on the floor, in addition to depriving the prisoner of the most basic rights such as treatment,” she asserted. Ines Harath also considered that “there are orders 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 what was stated in her facebook 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.