On 21 September 2026, photojournalist Malek Ben Dkhil, journalist Chaker Jahmi and photojournalist Alaa Agerbi were taken to the headquarters of the Central Unit in El Aouina after Malek Ben Dkhil was lured by a phone call about a fake parcel. They were questioned in connection with a march held on 19 September 2026 in support of the Sumud Flotilla prisoners, with questions about the participants.<\/p>\n
According to their accounts, they were taken away and questioned without any immediate explanation of the reasons for restricting their liberty and without being allowed to contact lawyers, and, according to journalist Chaker Jahmi, without any official record (proc\u00e8s-verbal) being drawn up. The officers also insisted that Chaker Jahmi unlock his phone, which he refused to do.<\/p>\n
The incident began on Monday 21 September 2026 at around 12 noon, when photojournalist Malek Ben Dkhil received a phone call from an unknown number. The caller told her there was a prepaid parcel in her name, gave the name of the delivery company, and said the delivery man was waiting for her near the offices of the Nawaat website.<\/p>\n
Malek told the caller that she had not ordered anything online, but he insisted that she come. She went to the place with her colleagues, journalist Chaker Jahmi and photojournalist Alaa Agerbi, where they found a person who introduced himself as a delivery man, in a grey \u201cPartner\u201d vehicle.<\/p>\n
While they were talking to him, they were surprised by several plainclothes officers emerging from different places around the site, at the same time as another vehicle, a blue \u201cSkoda\u201d, arrived and stopped near them. The officers asked the three journalists to get into the vehicle, telling them they were officers of the Ministry of the Interior, without explaining why they were being taken or where.<\/p>\n
After an argument, and attempts by the journalists to ask about the officers’ identities, where they would be taken and whether the officers had authorisation to do so, they were taken to the headquarters of the Central Unit in El Aouina. According to what journalist Chaker Jahmi told Intersection Association, they were subjected during the transfer to obscene language, blasphemy and insults directed at the journalists.<\/p>\n
As soon as they arrived at the unit, they were questioned as part of the investigations concerning the participants in the march held on Saturday 19 September 2026 in support of the Sumud Flotilla prisoners. Journalist Malek Ben Dkhil was asked questions about one of the figures who took part in the march, on account of her closeness to that person.<\/p>\n
The officers also insisted that journalist Chaker Jahmi unlock his phone, which he refused to do despite repeated attempts, and asked him whether he had covered the march as a journalist. The questions also covered matters relating to the work of the Nawaat website, in an attempt to draw the journalists into talking about the march and its participants.<\/p>\n
At the end of the questioning, Chaker Jahmi stated that the head of the unit asked him not to publish news of their having been taken or to disclose the place they had been taken to. He also stated that, as far as he observed, the operation and the questioning took place without any official record being drawn up and without the journalists being allowed to contact lawyers.<\/p>\n
The taking of Malek Ben Dkhil, Chaker Jahmi and Alaa Agerbi to the headquarters of the Central Unit in El Aouina, and their subsequent questioning in the context of investigations concerning a public march, raise concerns regarding respect for the right to liberty and security of person and the guarantees applicable to any restriction of liberty. Article 26 of the 2022 Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia guarantees individual liberty, while Article 35 provides that no person may be arrested or held in custody except in cases of flagrante delicto or under a judicial decision, that they must be informed immediately of their rights and of the charge against them, and that they may be assisted by a lawyer. Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the right to liberty and security of person and prohibits arbitrary arrest or detention.<\/p>\n
The failure to allow them to exercise their legal rights raises further concerns. The Code of Criminal Procedure requires, in cases of police custody, that the suspect be informed of the reason for the measure, its duration and their rights, including the right to appoint a lawyer, and Articles 13 ter, 13 quater, 13 quinquies and 13 sexies regulate the conditions for the lawyer’s involvement during questioning and confrontation.<\/p>\n
The manner in which Malek Ben Dkhil was lured to the location, through a phone call about a parcel she had not ordered, followed by the surrounding of the journalists and their being taken away by plainclothes officers, also raises questions about respect for the principle of legality and the legal guarantees governing restrictions of liberty. This is all the more significant given that, according to their accounts, no immediate explanation was given of the reasons for taking them or of their destination, despite their requests for information about the officers’ identities, the body to which they belonged and the basis on which they were acting.<\/p>\n
The questioning of the journalists about their participation in or coverage of a march in support of the Sumud Flotilla prisoners, the questions put to Malek Ben Dkhil about one of the figures who took part in the march, and the questions concerning the work of the Nawaat website raise concerns about interference with press freedom and freedom of expression. Article 37 of the 2022 Constitution guarantees freedom of opinion, thought, expression, information and publication, and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds. Decree-Law No. 115 of 2011 on freedom of the press, printing and publication also provides for the protection of freedom of expression and the circulation of information, prohibits restrictions that impede the free circulation of information, and protects journalists from pressure because of their work.<\/p>\n
These guarantees are particularly important for journalists covering protests, demonstrations and matters of public interest, since practising journalism or gathering information on public affairs should not become grounds for restriction or pressure, unless any restriction is based on a clear legal basis and meets the requirements of legality, necessity and proportionality.<\/p>\n
The attempt to force journalist Chaker Jahmi to unlock his phone, despite his refusal, also raises concerns regarding the right to privacy and the confidentiality of correspondence, communications and personal data, particularly if the aim of accessing the phone was to view information or journalistic material or to identify its sources. Article 30 of the 2022 Constitution protects private life and the confidentiality of correspondence, communications and personal data, while Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy and correspondence. Decree-Law No. 115 of 2011 also provides special protection for journalists’ sources and considers investigative acts aimed at uncovering them to be a violation of the confidentiality of sources, with specific exceptions subject to legal conditions and judicial oversight. Assessing the lawfulness of the attempt to access the journalist’s phone therefore requires establishing its purpose, whether its content or data were actually accessed, the legal basis relied on by the officers, and whether the targeted data related to protected journalistic sources.<\/p>\n
As for the obscene language, insults and abuse that Chaker Jahmi said accompanied their being taken away, if it is established that they came from the officers in the course of their duties, they also raise concerns regarding respect for human dignity and the prohibition of degrading treatment. Article 12 of Decree-Law No. 115 of 2011 provides that opinions or information published by a journalist may not be a reason for undermining their dignity or attacking their physical or moral integrity, while Article 14 of the decree-law criminalises assaulting or insulting a journalist in the course of their duties, under the conditions it sets out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9336,"template":"","violation_type":[],"governorate":[],"case_status":[305,110],"ecupation":[],"class_list":["post-9492","violations","type-violations","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","case_status-status-released","case_status-110"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/violations\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/violations"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/violations"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/violations\/9492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"violation_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/violation_type?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"governorate","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/governorate?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"case_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_status?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"ecupation","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.intersection.uno\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecupation?post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}