Tunisia's prisons in a heatwave: the argument is now about who gets in
Nawaat reported three deaths in Tunisian prisons in late July, during a heatwave that also sent Rached Ghannouchi to hospital. The prison authority says nothing has deteriorated and that it took every measure the heat demanded. The Tunisian League for Human Rights says it cannot check that account, because the justice ministry has barred it from prison visits. Their four statements run from 27 July to 21 August.
Where they agree
The prison authority, Chebbi and Trifi all treat this heatwave as something an ordinary summer does not bring. And on the one point where an adversary could contradict the authority, one does not: Chebbi's own lawyer says the administration neglects nothing and does everything within its power for her father, the same claim the authority makes for itself.
Where they split
The prison authority's 27 July statement denied that any detainee's health was deteriorating. Chebbi's account of her father, given three weeks later, describes exactly that: health problems the summer heat made worse. She does not accuse the administration of neglect, but the two accounts sit awkwardly together. The League, barred from the prisons since before either statement, says it cannot adjudicate between them.
What nobody is saying
None of the four says whether the justice ministry's ban on the League's prison visits, the reason Trifi gives for not being able to check the authority's account, will ever be lifted.
Dilou visited Ghannouchi on 19 August and found the 85-year-old stable but weak, and receiving care inside the prison. He also says Ghannouchi spent 23 days with no visits and no news from outside, which is what pushed him into a hunger strike. His defence team's statement of 19 August dwells on that isolation rather than on his medical care.
”L'état de santé de Rached Ghannouchi est stable”Rached Ghannouchi's health is stable
Haifa Chebbi says her father, 82 and convicted in what prosecutors call the state conspiracy case, a mass case against opposition figures accused of plotting against state security, has had health problems the prison heat made worse. She says the administration does not neglect him and does everything in its power to monitor his condition, but that it has reached the limits of what it can do. She reports him as saying he is in prison for the same cause that brought protesters onto the streets around this year's fifth anniversary, on 25 July, of Kais Saied's 2021 seizure of emergency powers.
”C'est précisément pour cette cause qu'ils sont actuellement emprisonnés.”It is precisely for this cause that they are currently imprisoned.
The prison authority denied on 27 July that any detainee's health had deteriorated, and denied that families or lawyers were being turned away. It says it took every measure the exceptional heat required, from accommodation conditions to medical cover, and that prisoners needing specialist care go to public hospital emergency departments. The statement answers rumours in general; it names no prisoner and no death.
”L'ensemble des personnes incarcérées bénéficie d'un suivi médical conforme à la réglementation en vigueur.”All incarcerated persons receive medical monitoring in line with current regulations.
The League now gathers its evidence from prisoners' families rather than from visits, since the justice ministry barred it from the prisons, and Trifi wants an urgent independent inquiry into the deaths of late July. He calls President Kais Saied's 23 July pardon of 2,439 prisoners, plus 490 further releases, a drop in the ocean, putting the number of people inside Tunisian prisons above 60,000. The League's 2025 report found eight prisons where a detainee has no more than 2 square metres, against an international minimum of 4.
”On sait que ces dispositions existent. Mais à quel point fonctionnent-elles face à la canicule ? Nous l'ignorons, depuis que le ministère de la Justice nous a interdit la visite des établissements pénitentiaires.”We know these provisions exist. But how well do they hold up against the heat? We have no idea, ever since the justice ministry barred us from visiting prisons.