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Arbitrary detention turns tragic

Mohamed, 44 years, North of Tunisia

After being sentenced to two years' imprisonment in a common law case at first instance court, an appeal court declared Mohamed criminally not liable and ordered his compulsory hospitalization. Despite this ruling, issued on June 3, 2021, Mohamed was kept in prison due to a lack of space in the psychiatric department at Razi Hospital. In early February 2023, when Mohamed's father went to visit his son in prison, he discovered that he had been transferred to hospital. Following an incident in prison that remains unsolved, Mohamed became paraplegic. He almost had to have a leg amputated because the guards kept him tied by the ankles to his hospital bed, even though he could no longer walk. According to Mohamed's father, prison officers assaulted him when he tried to talk to his son. It was only at the end of February that Mohamed was able to explain to his father what had happened.

He claims that while eating his meal in prison, he received a blow to the head and lost consciousness. His father lodged a complaint against prison administration and turned to SANAD. SANAD appointed a lawyer to obtain further documentation. The prison administration explained to the lawyer that Mohamed had gotten up in the middle of the night, climbed a low wall in his room and fell. The investigation will have to reveal which version is the correct one. In any case, this incident engages the responsibility of the State, which has kept Mohamed in prison, without offering him the required medical care, despite a judgment ordering his compulsory hospitalization. This is a form of arbitrary detention in prison to which more than forty persons are currently subjected to, despite court orders for compulsory hospitalization, due to the lack of space in psychiatric hospitals. Mohamed now risks to being sent back to prison because he can no longer stay in the hospital that treated him for the physical damage suffered. SANAD Elhaq is working to secure his release.