Tunisia, 1991 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 22 May 1991, corresponding to the announcement of the alleged coup plot in Tunisia known as the Barraket Essahel affair. On 22 May 1991 Interior Minister Abdallah Kallel told a press conference that the regime had uncovered a plot in which more than 200 military officers were said to be conspiring with Islamists of the Ennahda movement to overthrow and assassinate President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, reportedly by shooting down his plane. The plot took its name from Barraket Essahel, a village near Hammamet where the officers were accused of meeting on 6 January 1991.
Between April and July 1991, some 244 military personnel, including senior officers, were arrested, tortured in Interior Ministry jails, and removed from the army; in 1992 dozens were convicted with sentences ranging from 18 months to 16 years. After the 2011 revolution, officials involved in the investigation admitted there had been no meeting at Barraket Essahel and no coup plot, and that the affair was fabricated to purge the military elite and crush Ennahda jointly. The 22 May 1991 coding matches the day of the public announcement.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
61605221991
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Ben Ali used the fabricated plot to gut the military and crush Ennahda, staying in power until 2011.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
New York Times
The Guardian
Washington Post
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →