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Tunisia’s opposition National Salvation Front said late Sunday that some of its executive bureau members and supporters have joined a collective hunger strike starting Monday, in solidarity with imprisoned lawyer Ayachi Hammami and other political detainees and prisoners of conscience.
In a statement, the front said it was expressing solidarity with “all detainees who have turned their prison cells into arenas of struggle against despotism,” and protesting what it described as policies that criminalize political and civic activity and free speech.
The front also announced its support for the symbolic solidarity hunger strike scheduled for Monday and said a number of its executive bureau members and supporters will take part.
It said the decision comes in response to the hunger strike by political prisoner Ayachi Hammami and to political detainees who answered his call for a three-day collective hunger strike starting Dec. 22, in protest at what they described as the stripping of their freedom and their detention by a judiciary they said “lacks independence and is subordinate to the executive authority.”
Tunisian lawyers said on Saturday they would begin a collective hunger strike on Monday, in solidarity with “detainees and prisoners of conscience” and in rejection of what they described as “unfair trials,” according to a statement signed by 32 lawyers, including former bar association heads Abdessrazak Kilani and Chawki Tabib.
On Dec. 2, Tunisian authorities arrested lawyer Hammami to enforce a court ruling sentencing him to five years in prison on charges including “conspiring against state security.”
Hammami previously served as minister for human rights and as head of the National Committee for the Defense of Freedoms and Democracy, a civil society organization.
The case dates back to February 2023, when opposition politicians, lawyers and civil society activists were arrested and charged with offenses including “attempting to undermine public order and state security,” “colluding with foreign parties,” and “inciting chaos or disobedience.”
Tunisian courts on Monday began the trial of Saadia Mosbah, head of the Mnemty association, along with the group’s activists, who face financial charges linked to the organization’s work combating racism and assisting migrants.
Mosbah has been held in pretrial detention since May 7, 2024, after being questioned over the association’s activities and funding, as part of an arrest campaign targeting those working in migrant relief, including Tunisian Council for Refugees head Mustapha Jomali and the council’s project director, Abdelrazak Krimi, along with members of the Tunisia Land of Asylum association.
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