Tag Archives for Libya!

Libyans freed in Tunisia for Eid

Tunis, 8 August 2013:

Tunisia has released 21 convicted Libyan prisoners. They were among 343 prisoners pardoned by Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki to mark Eid Al-Fitr, two-thirds of whom had less than three months of their sentebnces left to serve. A further 981 prisoners are reported by the Tunisian news agency TAP to had their sentences reduced by Marzouki, but it is now known if there are any Libyans among them.

The Libyan Consul-General in Tunis, Mohammed Ferjani, was quoted by the Libyan new agency LANA as saying that the 23 were released as a result of the efforts of the Libyan diplomats in Tunisia.

The freed Libyans have not been named nor their crimes announced. However, most, if not all, are thought to have been serving time for drugs offences. Most Libyans in jail in Tunisia are said to have been drugs dealers.

According to the Tunisian Minister of Justice, Nadhir Ben Ammou, none of those released – Libyans or Tunisians – were convicted terrorists.

This is the sixth time that Libyans have been included in a Tunisian presidential general amnesty.  In March 23 Libyans were freed on the occasion of Tunisian Independence Day.

Libya Herald http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/08/08/libyans-freed-in-tunisia-for-eid/

Tamarod in Tunisia

Tunisia models their own Tamarod, which garnered over 180,000 signatures, after the Egypt, celebrated with chants of “Today Egypt, Tomorrow Tunisia.” The movement calls for the dissolving of the National Constituent assembly and for early presidential elections.

Upheaval in Egypt Sharpens Middle East Divisions

http://www.voanews.com/content/egypt-middle-east-islamists/1698914.html

A Look at the Arab Spring Security Sector Reforms

Finishing the Job: Security Sector Reform After the Arab Spring

By Omar Ashour, on 28 May 2013, Feature
The Arab Uprisings were principally sparked by the brutality of the security sector in almost every single country where they occurred. In Tunisia, Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation following an insult by the police in December 2010 triggered the revolution. In Egypt, the June 2010 murder by two policemen of Internet activist Khaled Said, followed by the brutality of police during the fraudulent parliamentary elections of November-December 2010, set the revolution’s context. In Libya, the arrest in February 2011 of Fathy Terbil—a human rights lawyer who had represented the families of the victims of the June 1996 Abu Selim Prison massacre, in which more than 1,236 political prisoners were gunned down by Moammar Gadhafi’s security forces—sparked that country’s revolution. In Syria, abuses committed in March 2011 by Assad’s security forces, which included the pulling out of the fingernails of children and teenagers in Deraa, triggered the protests that ignited that country’s ongoing civil war. In many ways, the Arab Spring was a region-wide reaction against violations by the security services.
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/12980/finishing-the-job-security-sector-reform-after-the-arab-spring

Militancy in the Tunisien maghreb

Tunisia teeters as it grapples with jihadists

21 May, 2013

TUNIS, Tunisia, May 21 (UPI) — Tunisia, cradle of the Arab Reawakening in January 2011, has finally got tough with its hard-line Islamists as, like other North African states that overthrew longtime dictators, it finds itself struggling with the fallout of its groundbreaking pro-democracy uprising.

http://latinbusinesstoday.com/2013/05/tunisia-teeters-as-it-grapples-with-jihadists/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tunisia-teeters-as-it-grapples-with-jihadists