Thread by @MonicaLMarks

Breaking: Tunisia military court just sentenced independent MP Yassine Ayari to 10 months prison in retaliation for July 25 Facebook post in which he denounced Kais Saied's takeover as a "coup."

On July 30, just two hours before I was due to visit Yassine & his family, he was extrajudicially abducted from his home by plainclothes forces in an unmarked van-- just as so many Tunusians were abducted from their homes in the Ben Ali years.

Yassine was held without due process in brazen violation his basic civil rights for two months at Mornaguia Prison outside Tunis. He said the conditions in prison were terrible, that he was harassed by prison guards almost incessantly, & that his health deteriorated rapidly.

He was released in September, but his plight wasn't over. Far from it. Military court brought further charges against him for the July 25 Facebook post. Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch advocated on his behalf, but to no avail. amnesty.org/en/documents/m…

Today, Yassine is (7amdullah) in France. His family are still in Tunis, and he fears for their safety. He is one of multiple elected MPs and prominent civilians being hauled before military courts in Tunisia's post-July 25 return to dictatorial rule by fiat.

Amnesty & Human Rights Watch have written extensively on this. I also wrote on this in my 4,500+ word deep dive examining the state of Tunisia's anti-Saied resistance earlier this month. dawnmena.org/can-a-fragment…

I can't emphasise the following point enough: Yes, Tunisia's security sector (under the Ministry of Interior's unreformed aegis) has always been the most corrupted, corroded corner of Tunisia's incomplete transition to a fledgling democracy.

Yes, Tunisia's post-revolutionary governments & their Western cheerleaders didn't do *nearly* enough to reform the security sector. And yes, *far* too many average Tunisians have been paying the price all along, especially the poor & vulnerable "muhamisheen" (marginalised)

But to suggest post-July 25 Tunisia is simply "more of the same" is to engage in dangerous, factually inaccurate dissembling. The circle of repression has *expanded* as I discuss in my DAWN piece. Saied is systematically destroying whatever levers of due process Tunisians had.