Sonia Dahmani’s arrest: UGTT expresses full solidarity with Tunisian lawyer profession

Tunis: The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) issued a statement Sunday, expressing its full solidarity with the Tunisian lawyer profession and its structures following the execution of an arrest warrant against Sonia Dahmani at the Lawyers' House in Tunis on Saturday evening."Following the storming of the lawyers' house by the civil security forces and the arrest of lawyer Sonia Dahmani on the pretext of carrying out orders from the public prosecutor's office and the assault on a number of lawyers and journalists," the UGTT national executive committee condemned in 'the strongest possible terms this flagrant and unprecedented attack on the legal profession."The UGTT reaffirmed its support for the lawyers' association and its structures in all the forms of struggle they intend to undertake, and stressed the need to 'bring to justice those responsible for and perpetrators of this attack'.The union called on all components of civil society to "condemn this attack on the Bar Association, which has been a nd continues to be in the vanguard of the defence of rights and freedoms, the fight against authoritarianism, the redress of injustices and the defence of trade unionists in their ordeals".The UGTT pointed to rising attempts to "stifle public and private freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and international covenants and demands that this be remedied", according to the press release.Spokesperson for the Tunis Court of First Instance, Mohamed Zitouna, had told TAP the arrest warrant issued by the first investigating judge of the Tunis Court of First Instance against Sonia Dahmani was executed on Saturday evening.Zitouna pointed out that the public prosecutor's office had instructed the security officers to execute the warrant in order to ensure the proper application of the law and the effectiveness of the ongoing investigations, and confirmed that it had insisted on "compliance with all legal procedures".Zitouna stressed that the charges against Dahmani have nothing to do with the practice of law.Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse