Liberal Party leader Mounir Baatour, an openly gay lawyer, announced on Thursday he would stand in Tunisia's presidential elections, marking a first for the Arab world.
Baatour's candidacy marks "a first which will without doubt be a benchmark in history", his party said.
A lawyer at the Court of Cassation, Tunisia's highest court, the Liberal Party leader presents himself as a defender of LGBT rights.
But ahead of his announcement, a petition signed by 18 groups who campaign for those rights warned his candidacy would represent a "danger" for their communities.
Baatour was jailed for three months in 2013 for "sodomy" with a 17-year-old student, an accusation he has always denied.
Having a criminal record does not automatically ban Tunisians from standing in elections.
'The fact that I'm gay doesn't change anything'
"The fact that I'm gay doesn't change anything. It's a candidacy like all the others," Baatour told AFP.
"I have an economic, social, cultural and educational programme for everything that affects Tunisians in their daily lives," he added.
Baatour is co-founder of the Shams association, through which he has for years campaigned against Tunisia's criminalisation of gay sex, which carries a sentence of up to three years.
Convictions for same-sex relations rose by 60% last year to 127 from 79 in 2017, according to Shams, which documents arrests and cases. It recorded more than 25 convictions in the first quarter of 2019.
Last month's petition against his potential candidacy was signed by numerous organisations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer rights.
"We think that Mr Baatour represents not only a threat but also a huge danger for our community," the petition read.
But in an interview with REUTERS last month, the Liberal Party candidate said it was important to open a debate on LGBT rights in the country.
“I saw there is no progress on this matter in Tunisia: there is no politician who is endorsing these cases and in my opinion I am the best person who can change the Tunisian society,” he said.
Presidential hopefuls have until Friday to submit their candidacy, ahead of September 15 polls.
kreedzsenpai on August 9th, 2019 at 19:36 UTC »
I know that this person advocates for gay pride but isn't publicly gay AFAIK also being gay in Tunisia gets you up to 6 years in prison and even watching gay porn gets you up to 6 months as well as abuse from corrupt police.
source : i'm Tunisian
Edit : last year they just removed anal probing to check for homosexual activity because both the UN and doctors union complained.
midoBB on August 9th, 2019 at 15:12 UTC »
Funny how as a Tunisian and someone going to participate in this election I hear about this candidate more from foreign media than from anyone in my community.
autotldr on August 9th, 2019 at 14:02 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 79%. (I'm a bot)
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