French student arrested in Tunisia

 

Aix-Marseille university demands the release of a French student, arrested in Tunisia

French PhD student Victor Dupont has been detained in Tunisia on breach of state security charges for at least 12 days, reports said this Thursday.  French authorities are trying to negotiate his release, the director of his research lab said.

"This is an attack on academic freedom," Vincent Geisser, director of the French Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds at Aix-Marseille University (Iremam), told press agencies.

Victor Dupont, 27, was arrested just before midday on 19 October at his home in a suburb of Tunis along with three friends visiting from France.

He was in Tunisia to conduct sociological research on 2011 protesters.

One of his friends, Edouard Matalon, a Paris-based librarian, was also arrested but released the same day after questioning.

According to Matalon, another of their friends, who is of French-Tunisian nationality, also remains in custody on the same charges.

The family of the student and his university supervisors had until now been trying to negotiate, and kept quiet about his case.

His parents finally travelled to Tunis on 28 October, according to media reports, to meet the French Ambassador and advocate for this case.

Geisser confirmed to RFI that the family had now set up a support committee to demand his release.

Neither Tunisian or French authorities were immediately available for comments. 

'Exceptional' measures

Dupont "was detained by Tunisian police on Saturday 19 October, taken to an interrogation centre, placed in custody, and the same day brought before a military judge," Geisser said in a press release, calling the last measure "exceptional" for a French student.

Dupont hoped his interviews would provide material for a paper on the social and career paths of "people who might have been active during the 2011 revolution" that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, according to Geisser.

He started his PhD in 2022. 

"It is not a political topic linked to dissidents or opponents or a security topic, but a typical sociology topic," Geisser added, calling for his student to be released.

Weakened human rights and liberties

Tunisians recently voted in a presidential election after a campaign qualified by the United Nations as troubled, marred by a crackdown on the opposition, independent activists and journalists.

Amnesty International's research has then shown that there is a significant rollback of human rights in Tunisia, especially in the last couple of years.

President Kais Saied was re-elected with more than 90 percent of votes earlier this month, three years after he made a sweeping power grab in the country.

Rights groups fear Saied will tighten his grip on this democracy, considered the only one to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring protests.