Appeal for the release of French researcher detained in Tunisia

(ANSA) – ROME, 09 NOV – A group of young university researchers, friends and colleagues, has launched an appeal online for the release of the French political science researcher Victor Dupont, who carried out sociological research in Tunisia, detained since 19 October in North African country by order of military justice. The petition also concerns a French-Tunisian friend of his, arrested with him and placed under arrest by military justice. The news of the arrest was given by Vincent Geisser, director of the Institute for research and studies on the Arab and Muslim world (Iremam), linked to the University of Aix-Marseille and the National Center for Scientific Research (Cnrs), for which Dupont had been commissioned to carry out research on the socio-professional path of “people who may have been involved in the 2011 Revolution”, the first popular uprising of the Arab Spring, which put an end to the dictator’s regime Tunisian Ben Ali. “We demand the immediate release of our colleague and her friend, unjustly and arbitrarily detained, as well as the support of our research institutes,” the signatories write. The commitment of our research institutes to mobilize the French authorities is all the more urgent and expected as Victor Dupont is arrested in the course of his duties, established by his employment contract at the Institute for Research for Development (Ird) . It is their duty “to ensure that members of university communities are protected from any coercion exercised by third parties, whether by the state or groups in society”. “The situation of Victor Dupont, imprisoned in a context of strong political repression, – we read in the appeal – must urgently initiate a policy to protect our academic freedoms inside and outside university campuses. In a context in which academic freedoms are increasingly threatened by political pressure in France and abroad, we draw attention to the specific vulnerability of young researchers The arrest of Victor Dupont, accused of “endangering the security of the State” , we are particularly concerned about future operating conditions of our profession”. “Victor was in Tunisia for his research field as part of his thesis on the biographical trajectories and the relationship with the politics of young unemployed graduates in a post-revolutionary context. This research mission benefited from the support and authorization of his research laboratory, Iremam, and his Aix-Marseille university. Member of a scientific program of excellence, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), he had already carried out several research in the field since 2022. starting his third year of thesis.”. Dupont is imprisoned in a civil prison in the capital. (HANDLE).