Tunisian Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli announced Monday that authorities had arrested a group of individuals suspected to have supported a Friday attack that killed 39 at a beach resort. The Islamic State [JURIST backgrounder] has claimed responsibility for the attack and the shooter, Seifeddine Rezgui, was killed by the police. Gharsalli said he suspected an even larger network [Guardian report] of supporters enabled the attack. Many of those kille were British citizens, and the UK has sent officials to Tunisia to investigate the attack.

Many countries have recently drafted counter-terrorism [JURIST archives] laws in response to terrorist groups like the Islamic State. However, many human rights organizations have expressed concern over such legislation warning that it sometimes sacrifices human rights in the fight against terrorism [JURIST report] solely because abridging those rights is politically convenient. In April, an analysis [text, PDF] by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] of the Tunisian government’s draft counterterrorism law suggested that the law as drafted could potentially lead to serious human rights abuses [JURIST report]. Permitting extended incommunicado detention, weakening due process guarantees for people charged with terrorism offenses, and allowing the death penalty for anyone convicted of a terrorist attack resulting in death. In January,HRW criticized [press release] China’s proposed counter-terrorism legislation [text, in Chinese] as a “recipe for abuses.” The organization expressed concern [JURIST report] over the definitions in the draft, which defined terrorism as “thought, speech, or behavior” that attempt to “influence national policy-making,” “subvert state power,” or “split the state,” saying that the definition was too broad and granted too much latitude to the state to punish individuals for seemingly innocuous actions.

[JURIST] Tunisian authorities arrested a group of individuals suspected to be associated with the gunman who killed 39 people,in a beach hotel attack said Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli on Monday.

mainly British tourists, in a beach hotel attack claimed by Islamic State, the interior minister said on Monday.