Tunisia suspends for a month Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group

TUNIS - Tunisian authorities on Friday ordered a one-month suspension of activities by the Human Rights League (LTDH), according to a statement from the group, which was among the civil society quartet that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

No comment was immediately available on the matter from the government.

The league said the move was part of a "wider pattern of increasingly systematic curbs on civil society and on free and independent voices".

In October, Tunisia also suspended several prominent groups, including the Democratic Women and the Economic and Social Rights Forum, while rights organizations have criticized what they say is an unprecedented crackdown targeting NGOs, opposition groups and journalists since President Kais Saied seized additional powers in 2021.

LTDH, an outspoken critic of Saied, has repeatedly warned that Tunisia has been sliding toward authoritarian rule since Saied suspended parliament in 2021 and later began ruling by decree.

Saied has said he will not be a dictator and that freedoms are guaranteed in Tunisia, but that no one is above the law, regardless of their name or position.

In recent months, LTDH has been barred from visiting prisons to inspect detainees' conditions in several cities.

Founded in 1976, the league is widely seen as a cornerstone of human rights advocacy in Tunisia and is one of the oldest such groups in the Arab world and Africa.

It was among four Tunisian civil society groups that were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the National Dialogue Quartet in 2015 for their role in supporting the country's democratic transition.

Tunisia, once hailed as the only democratic success story to emerge from the Arab Spring 15 years ago, now faces growing criticism from international rights groups over restrictions on opponents, media and civil society.

Prominent Tunisian reporter Zied Heni was detained on Friday after writing an article criticising the judiciary, according to his lawyer.

-Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Edmund Klamann/Reuters