REUTERS-Returning
Tunisian militants will be immediately arrested and judged under anti-terrorism
laws, the prime minister said, seeking to calm fears over the
homecoming of
some of the country's several thousand jihadists.
Tunisia is
among the countries with the highest per capita number of militant Islamists, a
problem linked to widespread radicalization among disillusioned youth and a
loosening of security controls after Tunisia's 2011 uprising.
More than
3,000 Tunisians are known to have traveled abroad to wage jihad, according to
the interior ministry. Last week, the interior minister said 800 had already
come back to Tunisia, without giving details on what had happened after their
return.
Prime Minister
Youssef Chahed said returnees would be dealt with according to a 2015
anti-terrorism law that is designed to ease the arrest and prosecution of
suspected militants.
"Those
who come back will be arrested immediately after their arrival on Tunisian soil
and will be judged under the anit-terrorism law," Chahed told state TV
late on Thursday.
He also said
authorities had comprehensive records on militants who had left the country.
"We have all the details on them, we know them one by one, and we have
taken all the necessary measures," he said.
The comments
by Chahed, a member of the secularist Nidaa Tounes party, came amid a fierce
political debate over how to deal with foreign fighters.
Some
secularist politicians have called for them to be stripped of their
nationality, though the right to citizenship is protected under the
constitution.
Politicians
from the Islamist party Ennahda, part of the governing coalition, have said
Tunisia is still responsible for returning militants and that the government
cannot prevent them from coming back.
The debate
intensified after a deadly Christmas market attack in Berlin believed to have
been carried out by a Tunisian, Anis Amri, whom Italy and Germany had earlier
failed to deport.
It has also
been fueled by military setbacks for Islamic State in neighboring Libya and in
Iraq, with the expectation that Tunisians fighting with the group will start to
return in larger numbers.
Tunisia's
anti-terrorism law was passed last year in the wake of two major attacks
against foreign tourists by Islamic State gunmen, the first at the Bardo museum
in Tunis, and the second on a beach in the Tunisian city of Sousse.
The law was
criticized by human rights groups concerned about an authoritarian backlash by
Tunisian security forces.
REUTERS
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