Tunisian protesters demand release of four Sumud activists

Dozens of demonstrators marched from the Tunisian National Journalists’ Union headquarters to Avenue Habib Bourguiba in central Tunis on Saturday, carrying Tunisian and Palestinian flags and portraits of four detained Global Sumud Flotilla activists. Protesters demanded the detainees’ release, called for the case against them to be dropped and chanted slogans critical of the government.

A Tunisian court recently ruled to extend the pre-trial detention of Wael Naouar, Ghassen Henchiri, Ghassen Boughdiri and Nabil Channoufi by another four months. The four have been held since March in an investigation that state media, citing judicial sources, says concerns alleged financial irregularities linked to fundraising for the flotilla; the activists and their defence teams deny any wrongdoing.

Supporters say concern has grown because Naouar began an open-ended hunger strike on August 16 and, according to campaigners, his condition has worsened markedly. Members of the National Committee for the Defence of Sumud Flotilla Activists told Al Jazeera that Naouar has fainted repeatedly, experienced breathing difficulties and hallucinations, and lost more than 20kg. The committee said it holds President Kais Saied and his government politically, legally and morally responsible for any harm to the detainees.

Organisers and allied groups, including former student union leaders, urged broader mobilisation from students, trade unions and civil society. They say the prosecutions form part of a wider pattern in which financial crime and money-laundering allegations have been deployed against activists, journalists and rights defenders. Human Rights Watch and other observers have raised similar concerns about Tunisia’s use of such legislation and about a trend of concentrated presidential power and weakened judicial independence.

The government has rejected claims that the judiciary is being used to silence opponents, maintaining that the judiciary is independent and that legal procedures are being followed. Supporters of the Sumud campaign and the detainees continue to hold demonstrations and call for the immediate release of the four activists, whose detention has also drawn international attention.