Close Menu
WTX News
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London
    • Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI
    • Sure! Here’s the text without the site name, category, date, and full stops: “It blew my mind as a kid” TV fans reveal best sci-fi series ever
    • Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area
    • Mauricio Pochettino ‘shocked’ by Daniel Levy’s Tottenham exit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    WTX News
    • Live News
      • US News
      • EU News
      • UK News
      • Politics
      • COVID-19
      • Business
      • Tech zone
    • World news
      • Middle East News
        • UAE News
        • Palestine News
      • Europe
        • Italian News
        • Spanish News
      • Africa news
      • South America
      • North America
      • Asia
    • News Briefings
      • UK News Briefing
      • World News Briefing
      • Live Business News
    • Sports
      • Football News
      • Tennis
      • Women’s Football
    • MY World
      • Climate Change
      • In Review
      • Expose
      • Special Reports
        • Conscience Convoy
        • Rohingya Report
    • Entertainment
      • Insta Talk
      • Royal Family
      • Gaming News
      • TV Shows
      • Streaming
    • Lifestyle
      • Fitness
      • Fashion
      • Cooking recipes
      • Luxury
      • Money Saving Expert
    • Travel
      • Culture
      • Holidays
    • Sign Up
      • Log In
    WTX News
    • Live News
    • World news
    • News Briefings
    • Sports
    • MY World
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Sign Up
    Home - World News - Hunger strike as a last resort against crackdown – DW
    World News Updated:January 24, 2025

    Hunger strike as a last resort against crackdown – DW

    By Olga Winter - EU Newsdesk5 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Telegram WhatsApp
    Hunger strike as a last resort against crackdown – DW

    For Sihem Bensedrine, a 74-year-old Tunisian rights activist, being in her cell at the Manouba women’s prison became unbearable last week.

    “I can’t stand the injustice that’s hitting me anymore,” she posted on her Facebook page on January 14.

    “I am determined to pull myself out, at all costs, of this black hole that I was arbitrarily thrown into,” she wrote.

    She has been on hunger strike ever since.

    Bensedrine has been in pre-trial detention since last August, on charges of fraud and “gaining unfair advantages,” as well as accusations of forging part of an official report while she was head of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD).

    Her lawyer, human rights organizations and the United Nations have all called the accusations baseless.

    “There is no justification for the detention,” as Ayachi Hammami, a member of Bensedrine’s defense team and a prominent human rights activist himself, told DW.

    “It would be different if Bensedrine posed a threat to security, or if she could affect the evidence in the case,” he said.

    “I  don’t believe that Bensedrine’s detention is in any way different from the vast majority of jailed political opponents that are prosecuted for opinions that are contrary to Tunisia’s authorities,” Hammami told DW.

    According to the recently published Human Rights Watch World Report 2025, more than 80 individuals remained in detention on political grounds or for exercising their fundamental rights in Tunisia as of November.

    Using political pretence to dismantle institutions and jail opponents

    Tunisia’s human rights situation has been on a downward spiral since July 2021, when Tunisia’s President Kais Saied began to aggressively consolidate power.

    Step by step, Saied has since dismantled most the countries democratic institutions, including the country’s judiciary, which is no longer independent.

    In Saied’s telling, such moves are necessary and justifiable steps in what he calls the country’s “war of national liberation” from problems driven by economic crisis and migrants.

    Last summer, in the run-up to Tunisia’s presidential elections, the human rights situation took yet another turn for the worse, with most candidates either barred from running against Saied or jailed.

    Scores of journalists and activists, among them Sihem Bensedrine, were also jailed.

    In October, Saied was elected to another five-year-term as president, in a vote that observers said was neither free nor democratic.

    Saied’s continued rule is not only bad news for his would-be political opponents, but also for the work of human rights activists in general, and those who investigate the abuses of Tunisia’s past in particular.

    Undermining justice for victims of past abuses

    The current situation could not be more different from what it was in 2011, when the country was held up as the region’s democratic role model after the Arab uprising.

    Of all the “Arab Spring” countries, Tunisia was the only one to establish an official body to insure justice for thousands of victims of human rights abuses under previous regimes between 1955 and 2013, the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD).

    Sihem Bensedrine was chosen to head the commission during its four-year mandate due to the extensive experience she gained during four decades as a human rights activist.

    But not everyone welcomed the commission’s work. Security and judicial authorities, for example, repeatedly blocked access to archival evidence as well as refusing to release the names of implicated politicians.

    Yet over time, the IVD documented over 62,000 criminal complaints and some 10,000 cases of torture.

    In December 2018, at the end of its mandate, the commission referred 205 cases of grave human rights abuses by politicians, security officials and businesspeople to Tunisia’s Specialized Criminal Chambers for prosecution.

    Of these, 23 cases were linked to corruption allegations against state officials.

    Since then, however, not much has happened in terms of accountability.

    According to Tunisia’s Civil Coalition for the Defense of Transitional Justice, not one judgement has been handed down over the past six years.

    Furthermore, in May 2022, Saied issued, by decree, a law granting amnesty to businesspeople prosecuted for financial crimes if they agreed to repay the disputed amount of their ill-gotten gain or invest it in regional development.

    That same year, constitutional transitional justice guarantees were omitted from the country’s new constitution, which was designed by Saied himself.

    The situation has become so dire that Tunisian human rights activist Adel Ben Ghazi says he is about to lose all hope that the government will ever follow through with the country’s transitional justice promises.

    “Transitional justice has become a faltering cause in Tunisia,” he told DW.

    “As of now, victims have not received any form of justice,” he said, adding that “they are still suffering today.”

    Weak and exhausted as hunger strike drags on

    None of these developments have been good news for human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine either.

    “A former member of the commission alleged in May 2020 that Bensedrine had essentially falsified the part of the report focused on corruption in the banking system,” Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, told DW.

    “We’ve reviewed that complaint and we don’t think it has any merit,” Khawaja said.

    When Bensedrine was detained on August 1, Khawaja wrote on the rights organization’s website that, “this is a clear case of retaliation, and authorities should immediately release Bensedrine, drop the charges, and stop targeting human rights defenders.”

    The United Nations also said in a statementthat Bensedrine’s arrest “could amount to judicial harassment… for work she has undertaken” as head of the commission, and that it, “appears to be aimed at discrediting” the commission’s report.

    Meanwhile, on Thursday, day nine of her hunger strike, Bensedrine was visited by members of the Tunisian Association for the Defense of Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and her deputy lawyer.

    In a statement, they later reported on Bensedrine’s Facebook page that she showed alarming signs of exhaustion. Adding that she had to be put on oxygen during the daytime.

    DW reached out to President Kais Saied with a request for comment but at the time of publication had not received a reply.

    Edited by: Jon Shelton

    Hunger strike as a last resort against crackdown – DW – 01/23/2025

    News Just in

    Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London

    WTX News Editor

    Cliff Notes Arrests occurred at the Palestine Action protest in London, with Police making their first arrests shortly after the protest began. The demonstration, supporting

    Read More »

    Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI

    WTX Sports Team

    Cliff Notes – Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI Ben Duckett has been retained for the third ODI against South

    Read More »

    DW News featured Human Rights United Nations
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email Telegram WhatsApp
    Previous ArticleEuropa League: Man United scrapes by Rangers as league phase reaches final matches
    Next Article Congolese army battles to halt M23 advance
    Olga Winter - EU Newsdesk
    • Facebook
    • X (Twitter)

    Olga Winter is a specialist editor writing about current affairs on the EU news desk for WTX News. Based in Brussels she ideally suited to the address the domestic and global affairs of the European continent, with assignments that include expose and In Review features for specialist reports..

    Related Posts

    Floods kill at least 23 people in northeastern Nigeria
    World News

    Floods kill at least 23 people in northeastern Nigeria

    Australia adds YouTube to social media ban for under 16s
    World News

    Australia adds YouTube to social media ban for under 16s

    What you need to know about the cross-border violence in Thailand and Cambodia as ceasefire agreed
    USA News

    What you need to know about the cross-border violence in Thailand and Cambodia as ceasefire agreed

    Protest against Israeli cruise ship sparks debate in Greece
    World News

    Protest against Israeli cruise ship sparks debate in Greece

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    Advertisment
    News Headlines
    Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London

    Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London

    Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area

    Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area

    Save 70% on VIP subscription
    News Briefings - the way to a better life
    News Briefings - the way to a better life
    Advert by Sponsors
    More from WTX News
    The latest gaming news - with game reviews and tips and tricks. updated 24 hours a day.
    The latest gaming news
    Hot off the press!
    • Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London September 6, 2025
    • Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI September 6, 2025
    • Sure! Here’s the text without the site name, category, date, and full stops: “It blew my mind as a kid” TV fans reveal best sci-fi series ever September 6, 2025
    • Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area September 6, 2025
    • Mauricio Pochettino ‘shocked’ by Daniel Levy’s Tottenham exit September 6, 2025
    wtx news brings you the latest news, a UK news briefing, Sports analysis, and premier league news with a special round-up of Business and crypto updates
    Facebook X (Twitter) TikTok Instagram

    News

    • World News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • EU News
    • Business
    • Opinions
    • News Briefing
    • Live News

    Company

    • About WTX News
    • Register
    • Advertising
    • Work with us
    • Contact
    • Community
    • GDPR Policy
    • Privacy

    Services

    • Fitness for free
    • Insta Talk
    • How to guides
    • Climate Change
    • In Review
    • Expose
    • NEWS SUMMARY
    • Money Saving Expert

    News delivered to your inbox

    Copyright WTX News 2025

    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.