President Kais Saied of Tunisia decided on Friday to extend the country’s current state of emergency for one more month.
According to the official gazette Journal of the Republic of Tunisia (JORT), “Saied decided to extend the state of emergency in the entire territory of the republic for one month, starting from January 1, 2023, until January 30, 2023,”.
The state of emergency in Tunisia was declared on November 24, 2015, following a bloody bomb attack on a bus of the presidential guards, which killed 12 agents.
Under Tunisia’s emergency law, which grants the authorities exceptional powers, the judiciary is not required to sign off on these powers. These exceptional powers include carrying out home arrests, banning official meetings, imposing curfews, monitoring media and press, prohibiting assemblies, and media censorship without permission from the judiciary.
President Saied decided on February 18 to extend the nationwide state of emergency until 2022. He also dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council, the top judicial body, and formed a new body which he has wider power over.
According to Amnesty International, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Tunisia is a party, prohibits states from suspending certain human rights, even during a state of emergency, including fundamental requirements of fair trials.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Slim Abid, file
