Tunisia: Crackdown On Peaceful Protests

Tunis — President Beji Caid Essebsi declared a month-long state of emergency on July 4, a week after an armed extremist gunned down 38 people, all foreign tourists, at a beach resort in Sousse. On July 31, Essebsi extended the emergency, which allows the government to suspend key rights and ban demonstrations on the grounds of the need to preserve public order, for another two months.

Walid Louguini, an Interior Ministry spokesman interviewed by the privately owned TV Nessma channel on September 7, said that the ministry had decided to impose a nationwide blanket ban on all public demonstrations, citing the emergency law. The government has yet to formally announce such a ban, however. It would be the first such ban since the 2011 revolution that ousted the former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and would be a serious setback for rights in Tunisia, Human Rights Watch said.

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