Protesters block roads, burn tires and clash with police in the Ettadhamen and Intilaka neighborhoods in Tunis.
Protests against police abuse in the Tunisian capital have spread to several other working-class neighborhoods more than a week after violence erupted in the Sidi Hassine neighborhood over the death of a man in custody.
Protesters gathered on Wednesday evening in Ettadhamen and Intilaka – among the capital’s poorest neighborhoods – blocked roads, burned tires and thrown stones at police, as police chased protesters and fired tear gas .
Last week, a video of police stripping and beating a young man shared on social media sparked widespread anger among the public. A few days later, the death of a man in police custody sparked protests in Sidi Hassine, on the outskirts of Tunis.
The man was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking, but the family accused police of beating him to death. Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, who is also interim interior minister, denied the allegation.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people gathered in Sidi Hassine with slogans against the government and called on the authorities to end police abuse and punish those involved.
They chanted: “Liberty, liberty, the police state is over.”
Serious offenses
The United Nations human rights office in Tunisia said on Monday it was concerned about repeated allegations of serious violations by Tunisian police amid violent protests.
Forty-three organizations, including the Journalists Union, Unions, Lawyers Union and the League for Human Rights, called on Friday for a massive national protest to end what they call the impunity of the police.
They said they had filed a complaint against Prime Minister Mechichi.
More than 10 years after the revolutionary protests of the Arab Spring against poverty, injustice and a police state, Tunisia has progressed towards democracy but its economic problems have worsened, which has led to repeated protests.
In the latest protests in January, police arrested more than 2,000 people, most of them minors.
Human rights organizations have said hundreds of them have been subjected to ill-treatment and torture.
Human rights activists have said police abuses threatened to undermine democratic progress made since the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s repressive regime in 2011.
