Ben Mbalek, along with about 40 other critics of the president, is on trial on state conspiracy charges.
According to his defense team, a prison-stated Tunisian opposition activist facing state conspiracy charges has launched a hunger strike to protest his ban from appearing in person at his own trial.
Jauhar Ben Mbalek, a member of the opposition National Saving Front and a citizen of a coup group against President Kais Said, has argued for the right to attend court “refute the false accusations” against him, lawyer Samir Dilu said in a Facebook statement on behalf of Ben Mbalek’s defense team.
Dilu said Ben Mbalek began his hunger strike on March 30th.
Benmbarek, who was detained since February 2023, is one of the president’s Tunisian politicians, activists, journalists and other critics who targeted what rights groups have described as a radical repression of objections.
Around 40 defendants, including Ben Mbalek, were brought to trial in March and faced charges ranging from “conspiracy against national security” to “part of a terrorist group.”
Human Rights Watch has accused the mass trial of “ock ha ha,” urging everyone charged in Tunisia to “quickly release”. Bassam Trifi, head of the Tunisian Federation for Human Rights Defence, has condemned the lawsuit as one of Tunisia’s “biggest judicial scandals.”
Former Constitutional Law professor Ben Mbalek is one of nine defendants who are prohibited from attending court sessions and is deemed too dangerous to be released from detention.
However, he argued that the remote attendance options offered him would prevent him from adopting effective defenses. Instead, he argues, according to his defense team, “is there to expose unfounded accusations against him in order to defend himself and expose unfounded accusations against him in a proper courtroom setting.”
The International Committee (ICJ), an international rights organization made up of leading judges and lawyers, criticised Tunisian judiciary for “systematic violations” of detainees’ rights in pretrial lawsuits, saying it could undermine the entire trial.
The 2011 democratic interests of the country’s revolution were yelling when it took a dramatic hand of power in July 2021, shutting down parliament, rejecting the prime minister and prime minister, and introducing a period of presidential rule. Said was later led to a new constitution that dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and strengthened his control.
Many of the people currently on trial, including Ben Mbalek, were prominent critics of those moves.
Others during the trial include former Intelligence Director-General Nadia Akacha, former president of Kamel Gizani and former leader of opposition party Ennada, Abdelhamid Jelassi. He was arrested in 2023.
Said, who called the defendant “a traitor and a terrorist,” says he is not a dictator, but corrupt people must be held responsible.
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