The state of emergency temporarily increases the security powers of
the army and police including scope for detaining suspects, and curbs
the right to public assembly.
Tunisia extends state of emergency for two more months - presidency
Tunisia has
extended its state of emergency for two more months, the presidency said
on Friday, in a security crackdown launched after an Islamist militant
shot dead 39 people at a seaside tourist hotel in June.
A
presidency statement carried on the state news agency said the
extension was effective from Aug. 3 and was decided on after
consultations with the prime minister and parliament speaker.
President Beji Caid Essebsi
declared the emergency shortly after the beach massacre in Sousse. In
March, two gunmen killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman at Tunis's Bardo Museum. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
The
state of emergency temporarily increases the security powers of the
army and police including scope for detaining suspects, and curbs the
right to public assembly.
No reason for the
extension was given. But on July 10, Britain cited a continued high risk
of militant attack in Tunisia, spurring thousands of British tourists
to rush home. Thirty of the dead in the Sousse attack were Britons.
Last
week, parliament approved a law allowing the death penalty for those
convicted of terrorism charges, a bill that has drawn criticism from
rights groups complaining it will curb rights such as access to lawyers
for detainees.
The North African country has
undergone a largely peaceful transition to democracy since a 2011
popular uprising but the army has been fighting a rise in Islamist
militant violence.
Tunisia is especially concerned
about militants entering from adjacent Libya, where Islamic State has
established a toehold amid the chaos caused by two rival governments
battling for control, leaving a security vacuum.
Tunisia
says it has started building a wall and trench along the insecure 168
km (105 miles) of its frontier with Libya. The Sousse gunman obtained
training with militants in Libya before carrying out his attack.
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