More than 157 organizations in Tunisia are suspected of financing fundamentalist religious groups, according to Kamel Jendoubi, Minister of Relations with the constitutional authorities, civil society and human rights. “They are a major threat to the security and economic stability in Tunisia,” Jendoubi said.

More than 157 organizations in Tunisia are suspected of financing fundamentalist religious groups, according to Kamel Jendoubi, Minister of Relations with the constitutional authorities, civil society and human rights. “They are a major threat to the security and economic stability in Tunisia,” Jendoubi said.

The government has already suspended the activity of about 100 associations suspected of “relating to” extremist groups and warned that more than 80 other associations still had to settle their legal status.  A number of other unlicensed associations have been dissolved by judicial decisions.

Jendoubi claimed that the number of “outlaw” organizations continued to increase in Tunisia due to the lack of oversight and slow monitoring of funding coming from offshore. Several official reports also indicate that authorities have no accurate database for controlling the activities of the associations that finance terrorist groups.

Nevertheless Tunisia’s Central Bank has established a mechanism that freezes suspicious bank transfers, according to Jendoubi.

Civil society boom

Since the 2011 revolution, the number of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Tunisia exceeded 18,000 – more than 5000 of those organizations are being monitored for suspicions of financing terrorism and sending Tunisian youth to fight jihad in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Moez Judi, head of the Tunisian Association of Governance, says that while there are legitimate associations that respect the associations’ law, several cover as charity organizations, when in reality they are funding terrorism.

Some non-governmental sources cite over 250 suspicious associations in Tunisia that commit serious violations including supporting terrorist groups, laundering money to gangs and sending young people to Syria and Libya – these organizations are allegedly still active.

Minister Jendoubi says the government has started to count and sort all associations funded by the state or foreign parties to validate their financial transactions and activities.

Ibrahim Almisawi, head of the Tunisian Association of Anti-Corruption says the fight against suspicious associations does not follow a pattern. He indicates that several lawsuits were filed against a number of suspicious associations, but have not yet been settled.

Maintaining human rights

Human rights organizations accuse the Tunisian authorities of trying to crack down on civil society activity under the pretext of fighting terrorism and prosecuting charities “with no legal justification.”

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights recently denounced the Tunisian authorities’ notification to end the activity of a large number of Tunisian associations and dissolving others “without providing convincing justifications.”

Among those threatened with closure are Charity Tunisia and Merhameh. The government filed a lawsuit against them on charges of involvement in suspicious activities, which they deny insisting that they help orphans and the poor.

The government claims the decision to dissolve the two associations was due to administrative breaches. The associations say freezing their activities has no legal grounds rather were a political decision to crackdown on civil society work. They confirm that they are funded by well-known international organizations that are legally active.