Tunisia imprisons women deported from Libya amid calls for dealing with them humanely

Amira Sherif

Human Rights Watch has called on the Tunisian authorities to deal humanely with women deported from flashpoints, including Libya, and arrested on suspicion of links with jihadists.

In March, the Judicial Police announced the deportation of the last group of Tunisian women prison inmates accused in the case of ISIS members who were arrested in the city of Sirte in the 2016 al-Bunyan al-Marsous operation.

The agency said that the number of deported women was ten inmates and 14 children in three stages, the last of which occurred via the Ras Ajdir border crossing, where the Tunisian authorities received them.

Human Rights Watch quoted a statement from the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights that the Tunisian authorities returned the last ten women and 14 children who had been held in Libyan prisons between March 11 and 18, some of them for more than five years, due to their links to persons suspected of belonging to ISIS.

The children were returned to the custody of their relatives or placed under government care in social service facilities.

The human rights organization said that “some (women) have been ill-treated, have contracted the coronavirus, and have been deprived of their rights.”

“The authorities should assess the situation of these women individually and prosecute those who have committed serious crimes. There is no excuse to deprive them of their rights,” said Hanan Salah, senior researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch., adding, “The prison authorities should end all alleged violations against them, ensure that they communicate with lawyers, and ensure that adequate preventive measures and health care are in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.”

Human Rights Watch collected testimonies from relatives and lawyers of women were denied medical examinations and the right to invite lawyers to attend investigations.

The organization stated, according to a relative of one of the detainees, that “members of the counterterrorism squad beat her during interrogation and forced her to sign interrogation reports.”

The statement of the human rights organization said that Tunisia should “ensure that any person deprived of his freedom is treated humanely and with dignity and enables him to fully realize his rights in the due process of law,” stressing that “the Tunisian authorities, as an immediate step, must grant the right to unrestricted communication with lawyers and allow family members of women detainees.”

The father of one of the women told Human Rights Watch that his daughter, who was returned on March 18, had told him that she had contracted the coronavirus. He said that a glass barrier separated the two during his five-minute visit with her. “She was sick when I saw her and she told me that other women also caught the virus. She told me that the women were not receiving any medical treatment inside the prison,” he said.

According to the statement, the continued detention of these women without charges is based on Tunisia’s Counterterrorism Law of 2015, which extends solitary confinement from six days to 15 days for terrorism suspects, allows courts to close hearings to the public, and allows witnesses to remain unknown to the accused. The law also allows police to question suspects without a lawyer for 15 days. Human Rights Watch said that the law threatens human rights, lacks safeguards against abuse, and should be amended.

Most of the Tunisians, who have been stuck in Libya for years, are languishing in Maitika prison in Tripoli or in the care of the Libyan Red Crescent in the city of Misrata.

Tunisians topped the list of ISIS fighters, and dozens of them occupied dangerous leadership positions, according to Tunisian and foreign intelligence security reports.

Ten other Tunisian women and 21 children are still waiting to be returned from Libya, according to the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks cases of Tunisian citizens suspected of having links with ISIS members abroad.

In northeastern Syria, scores of other Tunisians are arbitrarily detained as ISIS suspects and family members of ISIS members. The Tunisian authorities should take all feasible steps to repatriate or help repatriate their citizens for their rehabilitation and reintegration, or monitor or prosecute them in line with international legal standards if necessary.