Tunisia: Cybercrime law investigations expose new threats to freedom of expression
Over the beyond 3 months, the Tunisian government have tightened laws on freedom of expression, issuing a brand new decree-law on cybercrime and the usage of it to open crook investigations towards at the least 4 humans, Amnesty International stated today.
Tunisian judicial officers are investigating the editor of a information outlet and a outstanding legal professional over their public complaint of pinnacle authorities officers, even as a university student, whose Facebook page covers a neighbourhood that has currently visible police conflict with protesters, is likewise below research. They ought to face heavy jail sentences below Decree-Law 2022-54 on Cybercrime, issued on 13 September 2022 with the aid of using President Kais Saied.
“With the sector turning its eyes to Tunisia’s parliamentary election on the cease of the week, the government ought to be doing the whole thing they could to make certain a pre-election surroundings that welcomes loose expression and mainly dissent. Yet prosecutors are as a substitute investigating critics below a repressive new cyberlaw that’s simply the latest assault on human rights legislative safeguards with the aid of using President Saied,” stated Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“The law is rife with overly huge and vaguely worded provisions, this means that it could without difficulty be used as a device of repression. It additionally dangers dissuading humans from the usage of the net for worry of virtual surveillance and viable prosecution. The government ought to repeal it at once and drop all investigations primarily based totally upon it.”
Since President Saied claimed far-achieving powers in July 2021, judicial government have investigated or prosecuted at the least 31 humans, which include journalists, lawyers, and contributors of Tunisia’s dissolved parliament, over their public complaint of the government.
The new decree-law mandates heavy jail sentences primarily based totally on ambiguous phrases such as “faux information,” and offers the government huge powers to display humans’s net use and accumulate non-public information at the indistinct grounds that it “would possibly assist display the truth” or “be essential to the research” of a suspected crime.
Criminal investigations
On 14 November, police wondered Nizar Bahloul, the editor of the Tunisian online news outlet Business News, approximately an opinion piece posted on 10 November criticizing Prime Minister Najla Bouden. Bahloul advised Amnesty International that police confirmed him an research order signed with the aid of using Justice Minister Leila Jaffel mentioning accusations below the brand new law of spreading “faux information” and “defaming” a nation professional.
That accompanied a crook research that prosecutors opened on 28 October towards legal professional Mehdi Zagrouba, accusing him of defaming Jaffel in a Facebook publish on 23 October. In the publish, Zagrouba accused Jaffel of “fabricating” courtroom docket documents and inflicting prosecutors “to perform your agenda.” Zagrouba advised Amnesty International that his publish stated what he defined as bogus court investigations instigated with the aid of using Jaffel towards judges whom Saied had disregarded arbitrarily.
Also on 28 October, police arrested university student Ahmed Hamada, seized his computer and phone. He became detained. Then, on 31 October, they wondered him approximately information from his laptop and a Facebook page he created approximately Hay Tadhamoun, a working-magnificence district of Tunis in which police currently clashed with protestors, stated lawyer Samia Abbou, who attended the questioning.
He can also resist 12 years in jail for becoming a member of or assisting lead a collection to assault humans or belongings below Tunisia’s penal code. Meanwhile, the cybercrime law mandates 5 years in jail and a fine for willfully and maliciously spreading fake data via telecommunications networks. The consequences are doubled if the act objectives a public professional.
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Tunisia has ratified, ensures the proper to freedom of expression. Any laws on that proper ought to be strictly essential for a valid goal and furnished with the aid of using law with enough precision to permit humans to adjust their behavior accordingly. Restrictions primarily based totally on ambiguous, overly huge phrases such as “faux information” fail to fulfill that requirement.
Under global human rights standards, defamation ought to be handled as a civil, now no longer crook, matter, and by no means punished with time in jail.
Surveillance and collection of personal data
The Cybercrime decree-law fails to set clean limits and situations for approving surveillance and information series measures to make certain that they do now no longer violate human rights. Under Articles nine and 10 of the decree-law, judicial government may also order the surveillance of humans’s net use and the gathering in their non-public telecommunications information from provider vendors at the indistinct grounds that it “would possibly assist display the truth” or “be essential to the research” of a suspected crime. Under Article 35, the Tunisian government may also proportion that information with overseas governments.
Article nine additionally empowers sure contributors of judicial police to reserve the tracking of net visitors and seizure of information and gadgets primarily based totally on written authorization from an unspecified and for this reason ambiguous source.
Article 17 of the ICCPR ensures the proper to privacy. Any nation interference in humans’s personal lives ought to be furnished with the aid of using law that “specif[ies] in element an appropriate situations wherein such interferences can be permitted,” consistent with professional steerage on imposing the ICCPR with the aid of using the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee.
Background
Criminal prosecutions for public complaint of government aren’t new in Tunisia, which retained an arsenal of Ben-Ali generation laws that inappropriately criminalize loose speech. Between 2017 and 2020, more and more instances of bloggers or activists had been investigated or prosecuted for crook costs which include defamation, insulting nation establishments and “harming” others via telecommunication networks, totally on the subject of the non violent exercising of freedom of expression.
Since July 2021, the focal point of courts on outstanding critics and perceived enemies of the president has increased, indicating developing intolerance for dissent. In addition, at the least 4 of those investigations and prosecutions have concerned civilians going through army courts.
