By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A detained attorney, Mahdi Zagrouba who collapsed in court was not tortured by police officers, Tunisia’s interior ministry said on Thursday, dismissing allegation by lawyers and a rights group.
Zagrouba a critic of President Kais Saied was arrested on Monday on allegation that he verbally and physically assaulted a police officer during protests against the arrest of another lawyer, prosecutors said.
According to fellow lawyers and witnesses, Zagrouba appeared before an investigating magistrate on Wednesday, and narrated how he has been tortured by police officers, before he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.
“He mentioned the names of the policemen who tortured him before he suffered a collapse and coma,” lawyer Souad Boker, who was representing Zagrouba, said.
Zagrouba, who has criticised the President, was detained by police who stormed the bar association’s headquarters on Monday for the second time in two days.
The state TAP news agency quoted another of Zarouba’s attorneys, Boubaker Ben Thabet, as saying Zagrouba had been subjected to “systematic torture” during his detention.
Toumi Ben Farhat, another lawyer representing Zagrouba, said his colleague “was subjected to extremely severe torture”.
The interior ministry however says it strongly denied the allegation.
“We categorically deny that the lawyer was subjected to torture or ill-treatment. It is a scenario to escape responsibility after it was proven that he assaulted a policeman during a protest this week,” ministry official Fakher Bouzghaia said.
“All detention centres are equipped with surveillance cameras,” Bouzghaia added.
The country’s Bar Association said in a statement late on Wednesday that torture deserves criminal prosecution, saying it holds Ministry of Interior officers responsible. It also called for a nationwide strike on Thursday.
Heritage Times (HT) reports that Saied took office after free elections in 2019, but two years later shut down the elected parliament, going ahead to handpick loyalists as members of parliament in an election opposition said lacked transparency.
He has since ruled by decree, a move that he has said is necessary to take on what he calls a corrupt elite. Opposition has however described it as a coup.
With his five-year tenure coming to a close, there is nothing on ground to indicate that presidential polls would take place.
Despite assurance earlier that elections would hold, the Electoral Commission has not fixed a date.
This has led to protest in the country’s capital Tunis.
