(TAP) - The Bureau of the House of People's Representatives (ARP) called for initiating an investigation into police violence against a young person in the Sidi Hassine Sejoumi neighbourhood and brining to trial all those involved in this "heinous" incident.

It also urges public authorities, in a statement issued Thursday, to provide physical and judicial protection as well as medical and psychological support to the young man assaulted by the police.

It denounced footages "shocking and alien to the Tunisian culture" posted on social media Wednesday, showing police officers violently assault a young man held on the ground and completely naked, "practices contrary to the values of a republican police.

Several MPs on Thursday denounced the police assault on the young resident of Sidi Hassine Sejoumi, who appears naked in a video shared on social media the day before.

At the opening of a hearing session of the Access to Information Authority, they called the content of the video "shocking" and "harmful to the image of Tunisia" and compared them to the abuses of the prison of Abu Gharib in Iraq.

They stressed that this incident compromises the efforts of the security institution in the fight against terrorism and the protection of the homeland, and called on the Prime Minister who is serving as acting Minister of the Interior to apologise to Tunisians and the Director General of National Security to initiate an investigation to determine the responsibilities of each.

They also considered that "stripping a young person of his clothes and violently assaulting him in the street is a crime that should not be tolerated," calling on the Public Prosecutor of Tunis 2 to investigate this case.

The ARP Bureau must set a date for a plenary dedicated to hearing the acting Minister of the Interior on this issue.

The Ministry of the Interior said in a statement Wednesday groups of young people in Sidi Hassine Sejoumi have attacked police officers, regretting "acts of vandalism targeting public and private property and disrupting the peace of residents.»

It called on residents to cooperate with police units to help them perform their mission and ensure the safety of citizens and property, and stressed "the need not to give in to rumors relayed on social media.»