Nine Tunisian pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders were arrested by security forces on July 22 during a brutal police crackdown on a mass protest. Among those arrested are members of the Workers’ Party of Tunisia Olfa Baazaoui and Aziz Ben Jemaa, who along with the other social and political activists were held overnight and interrogated by security forces.

On July 22, thousands of Tunisians protested on the streets against the authoritarian actions taken by President Kais Saied to consolidate power and undermine the achievements of the 2011 revolution. Their just protest was responded to with violent and brutal repression by state security forces who charged at protesters with batons, sprayed tear gas at them, and arrested nine. Several were also hospitalized due to injuries.

This violent repression is another chapter in the campaign of the government to silence and criminalize political opposition while severely threatening democracy in Tunisia through the dissolution of key state structures which has been condemned widely by international human rights organizations.

We demand that the government stop persecuting activists and that the right to protest and defend democracy be respected.