At least 23 people died in Tunisian prisons during July and August, according to the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights. Amnesty International has called for independent investigations into the deaths, which occurred during a summer of exceptional heat and disruption to water supplies. Families have alleged failures of medical care. Prison officials have denied medical negligence.
Amnesty says it verified 12 deaths through interviews with relatives, lawyers and civil society organisations and by examining or checking accounts shared by families. The two figures describe different sets of evidence. The league’s count covers deaths it documented across the two months. Amnesty’s smaller figure describes cases it checked itself. Neither figure, on its own, establishes how an individual prisoner died.
Among the people whose cases Amnesty examined was Alaa Eddine Abdelkader, a 24-year-old university student in pre-trial detention at Mornaguia Prison. His uncle told the organisation that, during a visit two days before his death, the young man described difficulty sleeping and breathing in an overcrowded cell. He also described extended interruptions to running water. These details come from his relative’s account of their conversation.
According to hospital records that Amnesty says the family reviewed, Abdelkader was admitted to Charles Nicolle Hospital on the evening of 27 August and died shortly after midnight. The family said the records listed heatstroke, multiple organ failure and coma. His mother brought food and books to the prison on 28 August. Amnesty says staff accepted them without telling her that her son had died.
Relatives seeking an explanation face questions that can be answered only by people with access to prison and medical records. When did staff first become aware that a detainee was unwell? When was a clinician called, who authorised transfer, and when was the family told? An independent inquiry could compare entries made at each stage with hospital admission times and testimony from people present. That matters particularly where relatives and officials give conflicting accounts of the care provided.
The league has also reported difficulties gaining access to places of detention. Its Sousse branch said it was prevented from visiting Messadine Prison in July when it sought to check on detainees in critical situations. Amnesty is asking authorities both to establish what happened in individual cases and to address conditions that could put other people at risk. For families, even a detailed account of the summer’s temperatures leaves the central question open: what happened to their relative, and could someone have acted sooner?
