In the past few days it came to the attention of 10 members of Hizb ut Tahrir in Gabes that the Primary Court of Gabes issued against them sentence in absentia on 05/09/2016 to two-month in prison under the pretext of “halting traffic movement in a public road.” Against the backdrop of a protest carried out by members of Hizb ut Tahrir in Gabes in Ramadan 1436 AH corresponding to June 2015 CE, (knowing that the stance, which was documented with pictures, has been in a public garden in front of the center of the state and had no relation to traffic). The members were detained on the day, and then were released by the prosecutor after he promised to dismiss the case. But the authority in Tunisia, revert after more than a year and open the file under the cover of darkness, without prior notice, and sentenced the members in absentia to prison!
This political trial was not the first against members of Hizb ut Tahrir; other courts (Manouba, Tunisia) have issued sentences in absentia against members Hizb ut Tahrir for distributing leaflets (sic). As for the political police attacks on members of Hizb ut Tahrir during their activity, they are endless; for it is hardly an activity organized by the members of the party; such as distribution of party leaflets, stances, interactive tours or political cafes, to take place without an attack from the political police. And the public opinion in Tunisia still remembers the unjust assault on Hizb ut Tahrir and preventing it from holding its annual conference on 4th June 2016, despite the issuance of the administrative court judge a decision that gave permission for Hizb ut Tahrir to convene its conference.
What this meager authority perpetrates of attack on the party and its members demonstrates the extent of the bankruptcy and decay that it has reached, so that it behaves like gangs and not as a government that respects itself, and we have stated repeatedly that what the authority in Tunisia perpetrates of frequent attacks will not shake an eyelid of the members of Hizb ut Tahrir.
We emphasize on the following:
- The lie of this authority, which claims that it does not prosecute a side or a party for its political views, while the fact is that it is continuing in the unjust and unfair political trials, which affected dozens of members of Hizb ut Tahrir since 2011. And after it failed to prevent Hizb ut Tahrir with its laws, it seeks to prevent it through thuggish political police and the issuance of sentences in absentia, that are issued in dark cellars.
- The authority in Tunisia and its political police continue to follow the policy of muscle-flexing and the implementation of superior orders that they receive from the colonial embassies who are exasperated by the party’s continuation to expose the plans of the colonialists and the party’s stand in the face of all the projects and schemes aimed at taking the control over Tunisia and making it a conduit for the control of North Africa.
- Hizb ut Tahrir in Tunisia – as in the rest of the Muslim countries – will not be reluctant about its legitimate duty of political action among the Ummah and with it in its political – intellectual method. It will continue to call for the establishment of an Islamic state, such as that brought by the Prophet ﷺ, high resounding throughout the land, despite the noses of the oppressors, until Allah authorizes the fulfilment of his promise to salvage his servants.
This authority and the embassies behind it should learn: that Hizb ut Tahrir is rooted in the ground before this failed state was born, and that the most notorious states failed to stop its march in the path of the revival of the Islamic Ummah and its liberation from all forms of colonialism and dependency. So how the corrupt authority whose “ministers” are mere employees receiving instruction from the colonial embassies butt a party whose roots are firmly rooted fixed and its branches reach to the heavens?!
Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Tunisia
Tuesday, 22nd Safar 1438 AH
22/11/2016 CE
Issue No.: 05/1438