Tunisians outraged by 'inhumane' police attack on youth stripped and beaten in public street

Tunisians have expressed their outrage on social media after a video was circulated showing four Tunisian police officers beating a naked minor on the street. 

The video shows the police stripping the youth's clothes in the Sijoumi suburb of Tunis, violently attacking him and dragging him along a public road. 

The attack was condemned by multiple groups and organisations, with the Tunisian General Labor Union calling for the police officers responsible for the attack to be held accountable. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights declared Tunisia to an "unsafe country", describing the scenes in the video as "brutal and inhumane".

On social media, Tunisians used the Arabic hashtag #learn_to_dress to spread the video and called for accountability for the police and a "break with the policy of impunity that caused the high level of violence before."

Tunisians also mocked the official statement released by the Tunisian Ministry of Interior, which claimed that the youth had taken his clothes off, despite contradictory evidence seen in the video. 

The beating of the young boy represents the second such of police brutality in the area in less than a week. 

On Tuesday, a man died after being arrested by the police on suspicion of drug dealing. 

In a statement on the incident, the Association of Young Tunisian Lawyers said that after being handcuffed the police beat him, "leading directly to his death."

The assault and stripping of the young man happened the same day as the funeral for the man who died after being arrested. 

Since the removal of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia's police and security services have failed to undertake any genuine reforms and abuses are common, with legal action rarely being taken against the police. 

Tunisia's independent High Human Rights Commission said that this week’s assault and stripping of the youth and the death in custody of the man, risk undermining "confidence in the state and its institutions".