I Too Burned a Police Station, Online Activists Declare

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Facebook banner for “I Too Burned a Police Station”

A Facebook campaign called “I Too Burned a Police Station” is supporting Tunisians facing criminal charges related to protests during the 2011 revolution.

The page was launched on Sunday and received over 1,500 likes as of Monday evening.

“This is a campaign denouncing the false and arbitrary arrests against the young activists falsely accused of burning police stations,” Fatma Asma Moatemri, the page’s administrator, told Tunisia Live.

“It is a satirical response of solidarity,” she added, not a “call to violence.”

Facebook and Twitter users have posted messages supporting the at least 20 people the page says have been accused of burning police stations and confessing to participating in the burning of police stations as a part of the newly-launched campaign.

“I burned a police station, I incited the burning of stations,” activist and blogger Azyz Amami posted on Facebook.

“If the revolution is a crime, they can charge all of us,” activist Ayman Aliou said.

Aliou, 26, sees that this campaign’s purpose is three dimensional. It is meant to support the people who are accused and raise awareness about their situation. It also represents “a will to say basta [enough].”

“The problem is that the revolution itself, if we were to judge it from a legal point of view, is outside the law,” he said to Tunisia Live.

Three years after protests led to the ouster of autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, many legal cases related to events of the revolution are still ongoing.

Over 300 were killed and 700 injured during the 2011 revolution.

On April 12, a military court sentenced five security officials, including the Minister of Interior under Ben Ali, to time already served. They are expected to be released within weeks.