Wednesday evening, the Tunisian judiciary released the human rights activist Siham Bin Sidrin after her arrest since last August and her hunger strike last month.
“I cannot be happy that, nobody wants to be in this hole,” said Ben Sidrin, leaving the prison in the suburbs of Manouba in the capital, in Tunisia.
“I used to breathe the breeze of freedom at that time and to see a small square in the blue sky (when she leaves her cell), then I prayed to see the whole sky, and my wish has been answered. “
Bin Sidrine, 74, was led by the constitutional “commission of dignity” of transitional justice, which conducted interviews with thousands of victims of the era of President Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987), and Zain al- Abidin Bin Ali (1987- 2011).
He continues, in particular for “falsification” of the final report of the authority which was established after the 2011 revolution.
A spokesperson for the Court of Appeal in Tunisia, Habib Tarikhani, told the French news agency that the Court had ordered its release, but that it continues this case and prohibits traveling.
Before her release, her husband, Omar Al -Mustiri, told the agency herself that she “had suffered, but she is determined to defend her rights”.
The former journalist, who was one of Ben Ali’s most eminent opponents, began a hunger strike on January 14, the anniversary of the fall of the previous regime, to protest against his arrest. She was taken to hospital 10 days after the strike due to health problems.
Given the deterioration of his health, many NGOs, notably Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights and the International Organization for Anti-Torture, have demanded to release them, noting “signs of concern disturbing “and” put them on respiratory assistance systems. “
Siham bin sidrin is free
Freedom for all prisoners of opinion in #Tunisia pic.twitter.com/j8bh6aqgkkFida Hammami (@Fidaahamamami) February 19, 2025
Continuous harassment
The Human Rights Protection Observatory, which is the result of a partnership between the International Human Rights Federation and the World Torture Organization, condemned “arbitrary detention” and expressed its Regrets “The current harassment in the course of” Siham Bin Sidrin “in the context of 6 different cases, all linked to his work at the head of truth and dignity.”
The Commission for Truth and Dignity was created in 2014, the day after the Revolution which ended the presidency of Ben Ali in 2011, and his mission was to limit the violations committed by the representatives of the State between 1955 and 2013, a period which also covered the presidency of Bourguiba, as well as the agitation which followed the revolution.
In its final report, published in 2020, the Truth and Dignity Commission, which conducted interviews with nearly 50,000 supposed victims, and referred at least 173 files to the judiciary, called for “the dismantling of the corruption system , of repression and dictatorship “which still exists within state institutions.
Local and international non -governmental organizations and non -governmental opponents have condemned the decline in rights and freedoms in Tunisia since the Qais President SA`ID’s monopoly in July 2021.
On Tuesday, the High Commissioner of the United Nations Human Rights condemned Volcker Turk “the persecution of opponents” in Tunisia, calling for a declaration of the authorities to end the wave of arrests, which in particular for the defenders of human rights, journalists and lawyers.
Dozens of political leaders, including the leader of the Renaissance movement, Rashid Ghannouchi and the opposition, Abeer Moussa, as well as businessmen and journalists, have been behind bars since February 2023.
Most of them have been accused of “conspiracy against state security”, an accusation that involves serious sanctions.