Ridha Charfeddine, a well-known businessman, head of Tunisian football club Étoile Sportive du Sahel, and an MP in the ruling Nidaa Tounes party, is experiencing the downside to his fame.
Charfeddine miraculously survived unharmed when his car was pursued and shot at by an armed group while on his way to work a few months ago.
Even though he survived the incident, it turned his life upside down. Since then all of his movements, travels, meetings and activities have been under strict surveillance, similar to the protection of a president.
Ridha Charfeddine, a well-known businessman, head of Tunisian football club Étoile Sportive du Sahel, and an MP in the ruling Nidaa Tounes party, is experiencing the downside to his fame.
Charfeddine miraculously survived unharmed when his car was pursued and shot at by an armed group while on his way to work a few months ago.
Even though he survived the incident, it turned his life upside down. Since then all of his movements, travels, meetings and activities have been under strict surveillance, similar to the protection of a president.
Charafeddine has joined dozens of other Tunisian VIPs who were informed by the Interior Ministry of assassination attempts, and therefore assigned special security protection.
High-profile security
When Charafeddine attended an ordinary meeting held recently by the Tunisian Football Federation, a security alert was issued because of the large numbers of security guards escorting him.
In an unusual scene, armed security guards, some in military outfits, jumped out of police cars when Charfeddine’s escort arrived to a Gammarth hotel in the Tunisian capital.
Security guards escorted him like a shadow as soon as he arrived and they held sharp, vigilant stares, observing Charfeddine’s every movement.
Charfeddine gave a brief answer to the journalists about how he felt while being heavily guarded, even though getting near him was not easy for the press.
“I hope this situation ends very soon, because I want to have my regular life back and move about more freely,” he said.
Several violent extremist groups, such as Ansar al-Sharia and Uqba bin Nafi, emerged after the Tunisian January 2011 revolution amidst the unprecedented sense of freedom across the country. Although extremist groups were restricted and considered terrorists by the government, they kept their activities abroad, mainly in Libya.
These groups have issued death threats targeting political, media, and artistic figures mostly following leftist and liberal parties. Those groups announced responsibility for assassinating prominent political figures, including political opponents like Chokri Belaid, who was gunned down on February 6, 2013, and Mohammed Brahman, on July 25, 2013.
Those threats prompted the successive Tunisian governments, since the revolution, to allocate major human and logistical resources to protect targeted personalities. If the threats continue at this same pace, the ministry may unable to provide protection for all the threatened personalities and institutions, the present Minister of Interior has said on several occasions.
“Due to threats, more than 70 public personalities and 40 establishments are under constant security protection,” says Walid Louguini, the ministry spokesman who said that such security protection teams cost the government significantly. “Each team includes two to four security guards alternating in shifts to protect threatened personalities and establishments,” said Walid.
Loss of personal freedom
Security alert in Tunisia has been heightened since the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 12 presidential guards on November 25 – presidential guards have been assigned to protect targeted personalities.
“Despite the extra efforts from security guards to provide me with a feeling of peaceful, I feel like I am losing my personal freedom,” says Ahmed Siddiq, Parliament’s Deputy, Left Popular Front.
Sofian bin Farhat, a Tunisian media figure, has also received death threats by terrorist groups because he harshly criticized the Jihadist Salafi movement.
“The price of protection is very expensive. I have lost my freedom, to the extent that I often prefer to stay at home. Meeting friends has forfeited its past privacy and closeness through the presence of perpetual protection,” he said.
