Germany seeks access to UN staffer detained in Tunisia

The German government says it is seeking consular access to one of its nationals, a UN sanctions expert who has been held in Tunisia since March.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said Friday that German officials raised the detention of Moncef Kartas with Tunisia's ambassador last month and sent several diplomatic notes directly to Tunis, most recently on Thursday.

Kartas' family says the dual German-Tunisian citizen is being investigated for "allegedly possessing and disclosing intelligence information concerning national security to foreign governments."

The UN insists Kartas has diplomatic immunity and has demanded that authorities reveal the reasons for his detention on arrival in Tunis on March 26.

In mid-April, the world body said Tunisia had "failed to provide an adequate response" in line with its international legal obligations.

Last week a group of researchers published an open letter in several European newspapers, demanding his immediate release.

"The detention of Moncef Kartas on false grounds and in violation of his immunity raises serious questions about the rule of law in Tunisia," wrote the group of around a hundred academics and researchers.

They said that "not a single piece of evidence" had been released to justify his detention.

Kartas, a Tunisian-German dual national, was appointed in 2016 to a UN panel of experts tasked with investigating possible arms shipments into Libya in violation of an embargo.