By Le Figaro with AFP
Published on 03/02/2023 at 10:48 p.m
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US State Department spokesman Ned Price. AFP
The United States on Thursday, March 2, denounced “the escalation” in Tunisia in the face of a spate of arrests of opponents and expressed concern at reports of criminal proceedings being instituted against those who had contacts with the American embassy in Tunis.
“We are concerned by reports that criminal charges have been filed against individuals in Tunisia, which appear to stem from their meetings or conversations with members of the United States Embassy,” said US Defense Department spokesman Ned Price. “This is, as I said, part of an escalation in the arrests of people perceived as critics of the Tunisian government,” he added to the press. He refused to identify the individuals involved or describe in detail the circumstances of those contacts, but justified them by saying that “all our embassies and our diplomats around the world” would meet different figures in all countries.
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On Tuesday, Tunisia’s foreign ministry released a statement urging foreign embassies in the country “not to interfere in its internal affairs” following reports of alleged meetings of recently arrested figures with Western diplomats. Twenty personalities have been arrested in Tunisia since early February during a manhunt denounced by the opposition as an attempt to muzzle them on orders from President Kaïs Saïed, who has been concentrating all powers since July 2021.