A teenage protester was shot dead by police yesterday as rioting continued in Tunisia.
Demonstrators in Menzel Bouzaiene reportedly set fire to three police cars, a train locomotive, the local headquarters of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally party and a national guard...
Blog archive: Tunisia
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25th December 2010
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24th December 2010Following an "incident" in the town of Sid Bouzid, Tunisia issued a statement to clarify "the groundless rumours spread by certain sides". It said: "The matter has to do with a procedure carried out by the city of Sidi Bouzid’s municipal regulations services,...
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9th December 2010"By many measures, Tunisia should be a close US ally. But it is not." That was the blunt message from the American ambassador in Tunis, in a document released by Wikileaks. It was written by the departing ambassador, Robert Godec, in July last year, apparently as a briefing for his...
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5th December 2010In Tunisia, 30-year-old Mohamed Sakhr El-Matri is increasingly viewed as a possible successor to his dictatorial father-in-law, President Ben Ali. The American ambassador in Tunis met him last year and wrote a report marked "secret" which has now been published by Wikileaks: El-Matri...
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30th July 2010At the end of his
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20th July 2010The latest issue of the Tunisian weekly, al-Mawqif, has disappeared from the news-stands – apparently confiscated by government agents. There has been no court order (which would make the seizure legal) and the government denies taking action against the paper, though witnesses ...
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19th June 2010Tunisia's parliament has approved a law which will criminalise human rights activists and others who make contact with "foreign organisations" with the aim of harming the country's "vital interests and its economic security". Offenders face up to five years' jail in peacetime or 12 years...
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25th March 2010Human Rights Watch had a spot of bother earlier this week over a press conference in Tunisia to introduce its latest report on the regime's harassment of critics: "On March 22, the Minister for Communications, Oussama Romdhani, told Human Rights Watch that the government...
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27th January 2010Not to be outdone by Egypt holding a
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22nd January 2010Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, is due to begin a four-day fact-finding visit to Tunisia tomorrow. Scheinin, a Finnish professor of international law, angered the Egyptian government last October with a highly critical report...
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29th November 2009There is speculation among bloggers and on Twitter about the health of the Tunisian president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. The president, who is 73 and won a fifth presidential term in elections last month, abruptly cancelled a visit from the king of Spain which had been scheduled for last...
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9th November 2009Reinvigorated after its meticulously orchestrated election victory, the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia is hard at work again. Fatma Riahi, a 34-year-old blogger and drama teacher from Monastir, was detained last week for interrogation – along with her computer. She has since been released...
