A Tunisian military court has ordered the release of ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s former interior minister and security chief, who were jailed after the country’s 2011 revolution, the government and lawyers said yesterday.
The release of security chief Ali Seriati and former interior minister Rafik Bel Haj Kalem, accused of repressing protesters during the uprising, may fuel tensions in a country just in the final stages of democratic transition.
Tunisia has mostly overcome the political instability that followed its revolt, adopting a new constitution and installing a consensus caretaker government that is administrating the country until elections later this year.
But as in other “Arab Spring” nations which ousted long-standing rulers in 2011, debate over the role of former regime officials is a sensitive part of transition in Tunisia, where an Islamist party confronts a mainly secular rival coalition.
This is a blow to the transition after the revolution
“They should be freed in the next few days. This is a blow to the transition after the revolution,” said Laila Haddad, a lawyer for families of victims who were killed in clashes during the 2011 “Jasmine Revolution” that helped spark the Arab Spring uprisings in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.
The judicial decision late on Saturday was confirmed by Nizar Ayad, attorney for the former interior minister. The court ruled the men could be freed after they finished the mandatory three years of their sentences, Haddad said. A spokesman for Tunisia’s presidency called the decision a “shock” for Tunisians.
More than 300 people died in the clashes during the protests that were triggered by economic grievances and corruption but quickly spiralled into an uprising against the regime that forced Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia.
A military court sentenced Ben Ali in absentia, and sent the head of his presidential security and his former interior minister to prison for their part in repression.
“This is theatre. We will have our justice in other ways. We will start another revolution,” said Ahmed Amri, brother of one of the protesters killed in 2011.