Tunisia students released after president says arrests over song ‘unacceptable’

Tunis, Tunisia (AFP):

A Tunisian court on Thursday released two students arrested earlier this week for a song criticising police, shortly after President Kais Saied denounced their detention as “unacceptable” amid a public outcry.

Dhia Nassir and Youssef Chalbi, aged 26 and 27, were arrested on Monday in the town of Nabeul, east of Tunis, after posting a satirical song criticising police and anti-drug laws on social media last week.

Their detention sparked a wave of online criticism and prompted Saied to comment on their case on Thursday.

“I express my deepest amazement at the arrests,” Saied told Prime Minister Najla Bouden, in a video broadcast by the presidency’s Facebook account.

“There is no basis to arrest these students as they prepare to take their exams. What happened is unacceptable,” he added before calling on “honest magistrates to fight against these excesses and to ensure fair justice for all Tunisians”.

“I do not interfere in justice but I will not allow anyone to suffer injustice,” Saied said.

Shortly after the president’s comments were published, the two students were released but will reappear in court on Tuesday in line with the original court schedule for their case, their lawyer Imen Souissi told AFP.

The court had accused the students of having “damaged others via social networks” and having “attributed inaccurate facts to a public official”, Souissi said.

Last week, the pair published a song on TikTok in which they chanted over a tune from a well-known cartoon, adding lyrics that criticised police and their application of laws criminalising cannabis consumption.

“Once during the night, the police visited us. They took us for a (drug) test, I told them I don’t smoke (cannabis), take two dinars and free me,” they sang in the video.

Saied’s intervention in the case comes amid mounting criticism of the erosion of civic freedoms in Tunisia since he launched a sweeping power grab on July 25, 2021.