Thousands protest against Tunisia ‘coup’
TUNIS: Thousands of Tunisians gathered near the country’s parliament on Sunday to protest a presidential power grab they have deemed a “coup.”
It was the latest rally opposing President Kais Saied’s July 25 decision to sack the government, suspend parliament and seize an array of powers, citing an “imminent threat” to the country.
More than 3,000 protesters gathered, shouting “The people want to bring down the coup d’etat” and “Kais’s project is a civil war” and branding the president an “agent of colonialism,” AFP correspondents reported.
Some demonstrators carried signs reading “No to the intimidation of the media” and demanding “an independent judicial authority.”
The protesters “shut down all the streets, the avenues, the motorways,” said Jawhar Ben Mbarek, a figure of the Tunisian let.
“Ater shuting down the state, Saied has shut down the institutions, the constitution. He has shut down the country,” he charged.
Social media users shared images of police using cars and minivans to block protesters from reaching the suburb of Bardo, where the parliament building is located.
Activist Said Jendoubi said that Tunisia, 10 years ater its revolution, was experiencing “a real military and police coup d’etat. A police state has returned.”
Several members of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, a key force in the dissolved parliament, were at the forefront of the procession alongside let-wing representatives, holding signs reading: “MPS against the coup.”
Other protesters gathered near parliament, Tunisian flags in hand, and shouted their opposition to military trials for civilians.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International warned that “military courts in Tunisia are increasingly targeting civilians, in some cases for publicly criticising President Kais Saied.”
It said that within the past three months, at least 10 civilians have been investigated by military courts.
On Sept.22, Saied suspended parts of the constitution and installed rule by decree, maintaining full control of the judiciary as well as powers to sack ministers and issue laws.
He appointed a new government in October, with Najla Bouden as the North African country’s first female prime minister.
But he has significantly pared back the powers of her office and will technically head the administration himself.