Franco-Tunisian citizen Onsi Abichou, imprisoned in Tunisia for alleged drug trafficking, has vowed to stop eating to protest what he calls a “flagrant miscarriage of justice,” his lawyers said Friday.
Abichou, incarcerated for over 17 years, has faced a labyrinth of legal proceedings © Mena Today
Franco-Tunisian citizen Onsi Abichou, imprisoned in Tunisia for alleged drug trafficking, has vowed to stop eating to protest what he calls a “flagrant miscarriage of justice,” his lawyers said Friday.
Abichou, incarcerated for over 17 years, has faced a labyrinth of legal proceedings: 10 trials, 4 default judgments, 4 acquittals, and repeated appeals by prosecutors. He has been tried twice for the same case, stemming from a 2008 cannabis bust involving a van he once owned. A suspect who initially accused him later recanted, citing torture during interrogation.
Despite his consistent claims of innocence, Abichou was re-arrested in 2021 after being briefly freed in 2011 following Tunisia’s revolution. His French lawyers, William Bourdon and Lily Ravon, warn he is in grave psychological distress and denied pardon, while others convicted in the same case have long been released.
Abichou’s 11th trial is expected soon. His legal team is urging urgent international attention, saying: “He has decided to let himself die.”
Human Rights Watch has accused an Abu Dhabi-based security company of recruiting Colombian private military contractors and deploying them to fight alongside Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) between 2024 and 2025, adding to what the rights group describes as a growing body of evidence of Emirati military support for the paramilitary group.
Farmers across Sudan say the hike in global fuel and fertilizer costs resulting from the Iran conflict will force them to cut back on planting this summer, restricting food production in a country where war has caused acute hunger.
At least nine people were killed and six others injured when a four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Rabat, local authorities said on Thursday.
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