Death Penalty Sparks Huge Controversy in Tunisia: Report

The death penalty, in general, has always been causing widespread controversy among human rights defenders, social media activists and jurists, as well as religious institutions in various world countries, but this controversy has greatly intensified in Tunisia during the past few days, following a tragic incident in which a girl was assaulted, tortured and killed.

Civil rights advocates are calling for its abolition and supporters of Sharia insist that it is necessary to deter crime.

The subject was most recently brought to the fore by the rape and murder of thirty-year-old Rahma Lahmar, who was attacked on her way home from work in the Tunis suburbs.

The murder of the young woman recalled other similar violent crimes that have taken place in the country in recent years, with victims being mainly women and children.

Many Tunisian Facebook users responded to the recent crime by calling for the death penalty to be carried out against Rahmar’s attacker and criticized human rights defenders who oppose the punishment. Users rallied around the hashtag, “Apply the death penalty,” drawing broad public support.

Many Tunisians urgently called on President Kais Saied to heed their message and work to bring back capital punishment.

Saied has said he backs capital punishment, after public outrage over a woman’s murder sparked calls for executions to restart following a three-decade-long pause.

“Anyone who kills a person for no reason deserves the death penalty,” Saied told the nation’s security council late Monday, according to a video posted by the presidency.

By supporting the death penalty after social media pressures, Saied will further lend himself to accusations of conservative populism. Last August, he opposed gender equality in terms of inheritance based on an orthodox interpretation of the Quran.

Observers believe that Saied’s position on the death penalty is in line with his continued efforts to retain grassroots support, which propelled him to power in 2019.

Tunisia has signed international conventions putting the implementation of the death penalty on hold. While the country’s penal code allows for this form of punishment, it cannot be carried out until the president signs an execution decision, which has not occurred since 1994 during the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The death penalty was carried out that year against Nasser Damerji, known as the “Nabeul Ripper,” who was found guilty of raping and killing 14 children.

Amid the growing calls triggered by Saied’s statement, the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LTDH) expressed outrage against crimes and voiced unmitigated support for the victims and their families. But it reiterated its opposition to the death penalty.

Other groups have called for the death penalty to be formally abolished, but have failed to gain traction.

Tunisian attorney and politician Ahmed Nejib Chebbi said “execution is a thorny issue that pides Tunisians, and is a matter of dispute. Societies, however, have evolved, and today we know of 115 or 117 countries that have suspended the implementation of the death penalty.”

He added that “in December 2007 the United Nations ratified a decision to suspend executions, and Tunisia was among the countries that voted for this decision. For more than a quarter of a century, Tunisia suspended executions.”

Lawyer and activist Bochra Belhaj Hmida questioned whether the law to prevent violence against women, much of which focuses on prevention, was being implemented effectively.