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Recent Developments
A Tunisian judge freed two influential political opponents of President Kais Saied from prison. According to their lawyer, the leaders were arrested on suspicion of being involved in plotting against state security.
The leaders, Chaima Issa and Lazhar Akremi were released on Thursday after their detention in February along with 20 other political leaders in an organised attack on the country’s opposition. Both leaders were charged with conspiracy against state security.
The leaders who were released
Chaima Issa is a writer and leader in the National Salvation Front, which is the main opposition coalition to Tunisian President Kais Saied. The National Salvation Front was also responsible for various protests against the president in the past two years.
Lazhar Akremi is a lawyer and an ex-minister who served during the 2011 Tunisian revolution. He too is a prominent critic of Saied and his practises.
Before the judge’s verdict was announced, numerous prisoner’s families protested near the court in Tunis, holding pictures of the detainees and calling for their release.
After Issa was released, she proclaimed, ” Down with the coup. Down with Kais Saied”. She further told various news outlets that first she would like to express her happiness at being free. But she stressed the fact that it was incomplete happiness, stating that there was happiness with a lot of pain because various of her friends (politically detained prisoners) were still in Moranguia prison, thus indicating that she could not be happy while they were still in prison. Injustice against the rest of the prisoners must end, as imprisoning the dissidents will not solve Tunisia’s problems. Further claiming that she paid the price, but the movement of dissent must continue.
The defence team for Issa and Akremi said in a statement that the Judge who was investigating the matter decided to release Chaima Issa and further responded to the defence committee’s request for Lazhar Akremi while rejecting the team’s request for the release of other 20 political opponents.
The main opposition parties have denounced their leader’s arrest as politically motivated and further urged authorities that the opposition parties and the rights groups have the right to dissent, and thus the detainees should be released.
Tunisia’s President’s stance
While claiming that the detained political prisoners were traitors and terrorists, he further stated that the judges who were releasing them would be abetting their crimes.
Saied froze the parliament and sacked the government in a drastic move in 2021 against Tunisia, which was the lone democracy from the Arab Spring Uprisings. As a result of this, he ruled over Tunisia from September 2021 to March 2024, which he claimed was necessary to save the country from falling into the hands of chaos and corruption.
 Criticism of Saied’s Rule
The critics of Saied had dubbed this drastic move a ‘coup, while various other human rights groups had termed it a witch hunt aimed at suppressing freedom of opinion in Tunisia. Apart from the political crisis that was going on in Tunisia, it was also facing a severe financial crisis and was in dire need of foreign aid.
On Wednesday, European Union(EU) parliamentarians expressed their opposition to any unconditional agreement between the EU and Tunisia while underlining the lack of moderation over Saied. EU officials had asked Tunisia to release arbitrarily imprisoned opponents, defend their rights, and support their struggle for democracy.
 Similar instances and arrested opponents
Similar to the aforesaid release on May 24, Nouredine Boutar, the head of Tunisia’s most populous independent radio station, Mosaiue FM, was released from the same investigation, but he is still battling the charges of plotting conspiracy against state security and money laundering.
The politically detained prisoners include National Salvation Front co-founder Jaouhar Ben Mbarek and Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Islamist-inspired opposition Ennahdha party.
