Outstanding members of Tunisia’s political opposition have introduced they are going to be becoming a member of a collective starvation strike in solidarity with jailed politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek, whose well being they are saying has severely deteriorated after 9 days with out meals.
Ben Mbarek, the cofounder of Tunisia’s primary opposition alliance, the Nationwide Salvation Entrance, launched a starvation strike final week to protest his detention since February 2023.
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Ben Mbarek’s father, veteran activist Ezzeddine Hazgui, mentioned throughout a information convention within the capital Tunis on Friday that his son is in a “worrisome situation, and his well being is deteriorating”.
Hazgui mentioned his household would launch a starvation strike in solidarity along with his jailed son.
“We won’t forgive [Tunisian President] Kais Saied,” he added.
The leaders of Tunisia’s main opposition events additionally declared on Friday that they might go on starvation strike in solidarity with Ben Mbarek.
Amongst them is Issam Chebbi, the chief of the centrist Al Joumhouri (Republican) Social gathering, who can also be behind bars after being convicted in the identical mass trial as Ben Mbarek earlier this 12 months. Wissam Sghaier, one other Al Joumhouri chief, mentioned some celebration members would observe go well with.
Rached Ghannouchi, the 84-year-old chief of the Ennahdha celebration, who can also be serving a hefty jail sentence, introduced he was becoming a member of the starvation protest.
Ghannouchi was convicted in July of “conspiring in opposition to state safety”, including to earlier convictions, together with cash laundering, for which he has been sentenced to greater than 20 years in jail and for which he claims innocence.
A publish on his official Fb web page mentioned Ghannouchi’s starvation strike sought to assist Ben Mbarek, however he was additionally taking a stand to defend “the independence of justice and freedom within the nation”.
Ben Mbarek was sentenced in April to 18 years behind bars on costs of “conspiracy in opposition to state safety” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, in a mass trial slammed by human rights teams as politically motivated.
Rights teams have warned of a pointy decline in civil liberties within the North African nation since Saied received the presidency in 2019.
A sweeping energy seize in July 2021, when he dissolved parliament and expanded government energy so he might rule by decree, noticed Saied jail lots of his critics. That decree was later enshrined in a brand new structure – ratified by a extensively boycotted 2022 referendum – whereas media figures and legal professionals essential of Saied have additionally been prosecuted and detained underneath a harsh “fake news” law enacted the identical 12 months.
Most lately, lawyer and outspoken Saied critic Ahmed Souab was sentenced to 5 years in jail on October 31 underneath Decree Legislation 54, because the laws is understood.
The Tunisian League for Human Rights mentioned there have been “quite a few makes an attempt” to steer Ben Mbarek to droop his starvation strike, however he has refused, saying he’s “dedicated to keep up it till the injustice inflicted upon him is lifted”.
Jail authorities denied on Wednesday that the well being of any of its prisoners had deteriorated due to a starvation strike.
The Arab Organisation for Human Rights within the UK mentioned questions have been raised concerning the jail administration’s compliance with legal guidelines governing medical look after detainees on starvation strike and the “safeguarding of their proper to bodily security and human dignity”.
“Tunisian regulation explicitly stipulates the state’s duty to guard the lifetime of any prisoner, even when that individual chooses starvation strike as a type of protest,” the rights group mentioned in an announcement on Friday.
“The jail administration is due to this fact obliged to make sure applicable medical care and common monitoring,” it mentioned, including that Ben Mbarek’s protest displays “a broader local weather of political and social stress that transcends his private scenario”.
“His motion represents a type of protest in opposition to detention situations and judicial processes that many view as influenced by present political polarisation,” the group mentioned.
“In the end, the case of Jawhar Ben Mbarek exposes a deeper disaster regarding respect for the rule of regulation and the precept of accountability,” it added.
يواصل أستاذ القانون الدستوري جوهر بن مبارك إضرابه المفتوح عن الطعام في محبسه منذ 29 أكتوبر الماضي داخل السجن المدني ببلي (ولاية نابل)، احتجاجاً على اعتقاله فيما يُعرف بقضية “التآمر على أمن الدولة”.
وتظهر المعطيات المتوفرة أن الحالة الصحية لبن مبارك تزداد هشاشة مع استمرار… pic.twitter.com/HrHwe14juE
— المنظمة العربية لحقوق الإنسان (@AohrUk_ar) November 7, 2025
Translation: Constitutional regulation professor Jawhar Ben Mbarek continues his open-ended starvation strike in his place of detention since October 29 contained in the civil jail of Belli (Nabeul Governorate), in protest in opposition to his arrest in what is named the “conspiracy in opposition to state safety” case.
Obtainable knowledge present that Ben Mbarek’s well being situation is changing into more and more fragile with the continued full abstention from meals, which locations his bodily state in a essential part requiring exact and fixed medical monitoring.
