A Tunisian activist's journey from Gaza flotilla hero to jailed hunger striker

TUNIS, Sept 23 - A year ago, Wael Naouar stood on the deck of a boat at Sidi Bou Said port on Tunisia's Mediterranean coast, waving to thousands of supporters before setting off to try to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by breaking Israel's naval blockade.

Today, Naouar is more than a month into an open-ended hunger strike in a prison outside Tunis, demanding that the charges of financial misconduct against him and three other activists arrested with him be dropped.

"I don't understand why they arrested him. My son did nothing wrong," Naouar's mother, Hamida Dridi, told Reuters during an interview in the family home, weeping as she sat before a large photograph of her son.

Critics say the arrests mark another milestone in a campaign against activists, journalists and opposition politicians, who flourished after 2011 "Arab Spring" pro-democracy protests but have been targeted since President Kais Saied accumulated power in 2021.

The government denies the prosecutions are political and Saied says freedoms are guaranteed, the judiciary is independent, and no one is above the law.

A longtime political activist and critic of Tunisia's authorities, Naouar had spent two decades protesting against unemployment and pursuing social justice before shifting his attention to the Palestinian cause during the war in Gaza.

When Israeli soldiers intercepted his boat, one of a few dozen that sailed as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla initiative that also included Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, a video clip showing him confronting them spread widely online.

Naouar was detained in March with three other Sumud Flotilla organisers on charges of money laundering and misuse of donated funds, which they all deny.

There is broad support in Tunisia for the Palestinian cause, including from authorities, but the arrested men's lawyers say they are being targeted over their activism because of their popularity. Authorities say the case is part of an apolitical judicial and financial investigation.

Naouar's lawyer, family members and civil society groups say his health has deteriorated. He is "in a very critical health condition and on the verge of death," said Bassem Trifi, president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights.

A prison spokesperson did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Naouar's case and condition.

Naouar's detention has inspired protests in the streets of the capital, including one last week that ended with 14 arrests.

"He is on hunger strike, and the authorities are doing nothing," Tunisian artist Mounir Troudi said at that protest.

For Naouar's family, the political arguments are less urgent than the question of whether he makes it back home alive.

"The laughter is gone. The atmosphere in our family is gone," his mother said.

His brother, Nabil, said that if anything happened to him he would hold the president and justice ministry responsible.

In Tunisia, there is no direct line of contact for media to the presidency or justice ministry. The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. REUTERS