The anniversary of 25 July, associated with the proclamation of the Tunisian Republic in 1957, serves as a reminder of the grave human rights violations committed by the current government, in addition to a series of exceptional measures it has taken to suspend several constitutional institutions, following its declaration of the so-called “Third Republic” on the same day in 2021.
Since then, the authorities have continued to raise slogans of sovereignty and reform, while growing and legitimate concerns have been voiced by both national and international human rights organisations regarding the regression of public freedoms. At the forefront of these concerns is freedom of expression, both online and offline, which has been subject to significant and widespread restrictions. Civil society activists, journalists and political opponents have also been targeted with judicial prosecutions based on fabricated charges. This has been compounded by the shrinking of civic space and attempts to silence dissenting voices, despite the fact that one of the most important gains of the democratic transition was precisely the protection of these freedoms.
Mass Rally in Solidarity with the Tunisian General Labour Union
On 21 August 2025, more than 2000 members of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), a recipient of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, took part in a solidarity demonstration in downtown Tunis. The protest was organised in support of the union following harsh criticism directed against it by President Kais Saied (main photo).
The rally came after the government, on 14 August 2025, acting on directives from President Saied, decided to end paid trade union leave and to halt the automatic deduction of union dues from the salaries of public sector employees affiliated with the UGTT.
Attacks Against Journalists
On 17 July 2025, the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) published a report on its website stating that its Monitoring Unit had documented eight assaults against journalists out of 10 alerts received. The cases were recorded through monitoring the work environment of journalists as well as developments on social media platforms and national media outlets.
According to the same report, the violations documented since the beginning of 2025 were distributed as follows:
| Month | January 2025 | February 2025 | March 2025 | April 2025 | May 2025 | June 2025 |
| Number of Violations | 11 | 9 | 10 | 16 | 18 | 8 |
The decision to dissolve the High Council of the Judiciary in February 2022, issued by Tunisian President Kais Saied, and the subsequent politicised use of the judiciary in the following years, through swift rulings targeting civil society activists, including journalists, bloggers and political opponents, has been one of the main drivers behind the serious deterioration in public freedoms, including press freedom.
Cybercrime Law Used as a Tool to Stifle Freedom of Expression
Since the adoption of Decree-Law No. 54 on Combating Cybercrime in September 2022, the authorities have used it to intimidate and silence citizens in general, and activists critical of government policies in particular. They have been targeted and prosecuted on fabricated and vague charges under Article 24 of the law, which criminalises rumours and false information. The law has been applied to impose harsh prison sentences and exorbitant fines.
Despite repeated calls from human rights organisations and members of parliament to repeal or amend Decree-Law No. 54 on Combating Cybercrime in order to ensure it is not used as a tool of repression, the authorities have turned a deaf ear. Instead, it continues to serve as an effective instrument to suppress dissent and restrict freedom of expression.
List of Activists Targeted Under Decree-Law No. 54 on Combating Cybercrime
Below is a non-exhaustive list of prominent human rights defenders, journalists and media professionals who have faced arrests and judicial proceedings due to their media work under Decree-Law No. 54 on Combating Cybercrime, covering the period from 2023 through summer 2025:
Journalists and Media Professionals
Rachad Temboura: On 31 January 2025, the Court of Appeal upheld the initial sentence against graffiti artist and human rights activist Rachad Temboura, sentencing him to two years in prison after convicting him of multiple charges, including spreading false information aimed at harming public security under Article 24 of Decree-Law No. 54. His case was linked to a graphic he created criticising the government’s racism against migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa. He was released on 17 July 2025.
Nasreddine Halimi: On 07 March 2025, the Bizerte Military Court sentenced blogger Nasreddine Halimi to seven years in prison under Decree-Law No. 54, convicting him on two charges, including the use of information and communication networks to produce, distribute, publish, and prepare false news and statements. His sentence was later reduced to two years, and he was released on 06 June 2025.
Khalifa Al-Qasmi: On 09 June 2025, the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Tunis dismissed the case against journalist Khalifa Al-Qasmi, a Mosaïque FM correspondent in Kairouan. Previously, he had been released after the Court of Cassation overturned and referred his case to the Court of Appeal on 06 March 2024, which had earlier issued a final ruling increasing his prison sentence from one year to six years on 15 May 2023. The case against him was related to the publication of an accurate news report sourced from an official security source about a terrorist operation, targeting him because he refused to reveal his sources. He had been arrested on 03 September 2023.
Mohamed Boughaleb: On 10 July 2025, the Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced prominent journalist Mohamed Boughaleb to two years in prison under Article 24 of Decree-Law No. 54. He was convicted following a complaint filed by a university professor in connection with a publication deemed defamatory, despite evidence showing that Boughaleb was not its author.
In a separate case brought against him by an official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs over his radio and television commentary regarding the ministry’s policies and foreign visits, the Tunis Court of Appeal sentenced him to eight months in prison.
Boughaleb had previously served 11 months in prison, having been arrested on 22 March 2024 and released on 20 February 2025.
Sonia Al-Dhamani: On 30 June 2025, the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced journalist and media commentator Sonia Al-Dahmani to two years in prison following her conviction in a case linked to a media statement in which she criticised racist practices against African migrants. Al-Dahmani is widely known for her outspoken criticism of the current president’s policies.
Al-Dahmani has faced ongoing judicial harassment since her arbitrary arrest on 11 May 2024, when masked security forces in civilian clothing stormed the National Bar Association headquarters in Tunis. Her arrest came after she made televised remarks questioning the government’s stance on migrants in Tunisia.
A total of five separate cases have been brought against her under Article 24 of Decree-Law No. 54 on so-called “false news” charges. On 10 September 2024, the Court of Appeal reduced a July 2024 first-instance sentence from one year in prison to eight months, in a fast-tracked trial where she was denied a proper defense. The case was tied to her appearance on a talk show on Carthage TV, during which she commented on accusations that African migrants sought to settle in Tunisia, responding with the phrase “Shouf el-bled el-haïla” (“What a great country”). Authorities deemed this remark “insulting” to the nation.
On 24 January 2025, the Tunis Court of Appeal convicted her of “using information and communication networks to produce, disseminate, publish, transmit, or prepare false rumours,” while reducing a previous October 2024 first-instance sentence from two years to one year and six months.
In a press statement on 16 July 2025, Al-Dahmani’s defense team announced that the total prison sentences she is required to serve amount to two years and two months in connection with two finalised cases. The third case, mentioned above, has so far resulted in a first-instance sentence of two years in prison and is currently under appeal. The defense further confirmed the existence of a fourth case before the Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance, which has been postponed until 30 September 2025, while the fifth case remains pending before the investigating judge.
Several local legal experts have pointed out serious legal irregularities in these proceedings, foremost among them the issuance of multiple rulings on essentially the same charge related to her public statements on migrants.
Hamdi Al-Tlili: Masked security officers arrested journalist Hamdi Al-Tlili, a France 24 correspondent, while he was broadcasting live coverage of the arrest of Sonia Al-Dahmani. His equipment, including the camera that documented the raid on the National Bar Association headquarters, was confiscated. He was released late on 11 May 2025.
Yassine Mahjoub: On 13 May 2025, security forces arrested photojournalist Yassine Mahjoub while he was covering a protest gathering of lawyers at the National Bar Association headquarters in Tunis, which had been stormed earlier. The protest was organised in response to the raid and the arbitrary arrest of journalist Sonia Al-Dahmani. Mahjoub was released the following day, after security forces had erased all of his photographs.
Mehdi Zagrouba: On 11 July 2024, the authorities released lawyer Mehdi Zagrouba, although the investigating judge decided to keep the case against him open. According to a statement from the Ministry of Interior following his arrest, he was accused of “verbal and physical assault” against two members of the security forces.
Local sources reported that the case was linked to protests staged by lawyers, including Zagrouba, after the Tunis Court of First Instance ordered the detention of Al-Dahmani on 13 May 2024 without questioning her. Zagrouba was arrested later that same evening.
On 15 May 2024, the National Bar Association issued a statement declaring that Zagrouba had been subjected to torture, noting that he “bore visible marks of physical violence on different parts of his body, as documented by the investigating judge,” which confirmed his ill-treatment during detention. The association also declared a nationwide strike for the following day.
Zagrouba had previously been sentenced on 20 January 2023 by a military appeals court to imprisonment and was barred from practicing law for five years.
Mourad Al-Zeghidi and Borhane Bsaïs: On 27 August 2025, the Indictment Chamber of the Tunis Court of Appeal decided to refer political commentator Mourad Al-Zeghidi and television host Borhane Bsaïs to the Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance and rejected their request for release. No official details were provided regarding the nature of the charges, although some press reports indicated that the accusations were financial in nature.
On 22 May 2024, the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced both men to one year in prison each under Decree-Law No. 54, following social media posts in which they criticised the authorities. The court sentenced them to six months in prison for “using information and communication networks to produce, disseminate, transmit, and prepare false news and rumours with the intent to infringe upon the rights of others and harm public security.” They were handed an additional six-month sentence for “using information systems to spread false allegations with the intent of defamation, damaging reputations, and causing material and moral harm.”
On 26 July 2024, the Tunis Court of Appeal reduced Bsaïs’s sentence to eight months in prison, to be served, and on 30 July 2024, the same court reduced Al-Zeghidi’s sentence to eight months in prison, to be served as well.
Bsaïs had been the host of the radio program “Al-Ardh Al-Mustahil” (“The Impossible Show”) on the private station IFM, where he was joined by Al-Zeghidi and Sonia Al-Dahmani as political commentators.
Targeting Independent and Dissenting Voices Against the Government
It has become evident to observers inside and outside Tunisia that the government is following a systematic pattern of repressive policies aimed at dismantling the human rights movement and the entire political opposition, as documented by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights.
Leading Human Rights Lawyer Ahmed Souab
Amid this context, denunciations of all repressive policies continue, alongside calls for the release of all prisoners of conscience, including prominent human rights lawyer Ahmed Souab, who emphasised from behind bars that his trial is “purely political” and that “the judiciary is complicit in tyranny.”
In a similar pattern of systematic repression, a security unit from the Counter-Terrorism Brigade in Bouchoucha raided the home of Ahmed Souab, who is also a former judge and member of the defense team in the “Conspiracy against State Security” case, on the morning of 21 April 2025.
Souab has been one of the most prominent legal voices opposing the current government’s policies since the dissolution of parliament in 2021. He participated in defending opponents in the Conspiracy against State Security case.
The case file is linked to alleged terrorism charges, according to the authorities. However, numerous human rights activists and legal experts have confirmed that this constitutes a systematic misuse of counter-terrorism laws aimed at silencing all forms of opposition.
Journalist Zohair El-Jais
On 23 July 2025, the management of Jawhara FM deleted the political segment of the programme “Politica”, hosted by journalist Zohair Al-Jais, from its Facebook page. The segment featured an interview with independent political and economic activist and former minister Fawzi Abdelrahman, discussing the country’s political and economic situation. The management removed the segment immediately after the live broadcast without notifying the programme’s host.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) issued a statement describing the radio station’s actions as “a case of serious censorship and unlawful interference in editorial processes, reminiscent of practices that undermine the very essence of freedom of expression and impose restrictions on it. These practices undermine the standards of diversity and pluralism in the media.”
On 01 August 2025, Al-Jais announced the permanent end of “Politica”, a program he had hosted for 11 years since 2014. In a farewell message following the program’s closure, he confirmed that he had been subjected to multiple pressures from various parties, including politicians and business figures.
Journalist Ghassan Ben Khalifa
On 15 July 2025, the Court of Appeal upheld the initial ruling sentencing journalist Ghassan Ben Khalifa, editor-in-chief of Inhiyez website, to six months in prison after convicting him of defamation via social media, in a case fabricated against him since September 2022.
On 24 July 2025, the Inhiyez website published a call titled “Support Ghassan Ben Khalifa”, stating that “the judicial case on which he is being tried is entirely fabricated, aimed at tarnishing Ghassan, a social journalist who advocates for the causes of the working classes and holds inconvenient national opinions for the current government.” The statement also urged defenders of freedom of expression to “take a series of practical steps to support him, protest the unjust prison sentence, and put an end to the baseless charges against him.”
Woman human rights defender Sihem Bensedrine
On 19 February 2025, the Tunis Court of Appeal decided to release prominent woman human rights defender Sihem Bensedrine, former Chairperson of the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD), while imposing a travel ban pending the case filed against her.
She had been arrested on 01 August 2024 after a complaint was lodged against her by an employee of the same commission, alleging the “falsification of the Commission’s final report.”
The Truth and Dignity Commission was established in 2014 to investigate serious human rights violations in Tunisia dating back to 1955. Its final report was published in the Official Gazette in 2020.
On 14 January 2025, Bensedrine announced on her Facebook page that she had begun a hunger strike, stating, “I do not have the strength to endure the injustice that has been inflicted upon me.”
On 31 January 2025, her family posted an update on the same page, reporting that “after five days of complete isolation from visitors in the intensive care unit at La Rabta Hospital, where she had been admitted on the evening of Saturday, 25 January 2025, we were finally able to see her on the afternoon of Thursday, 30 January 2025.” The statement further noted that she had ended her hunger strike, expressing “her full determination to achieve the victory of truth and justice.”
The Instalingo Company Case
On 19 September 2021, security forces raided the headquarters of Instalingo Company in the governorate of Sousse. The company specialises in digital content creation, online communication, and media publishing, employing journalists, technicians, administrative staff and other workers. This raid, which was followed by the arrest of dozens of individuals associated with the company, came just weeks after President Kais Saied announced exceptional measures in the country on 25 July 2021.
The case involved security personnel, bloggers, journalists, businesspeople and politicians. The accused were charged with “conspiring against state security, attempting to change the structure of the state, and insulting the President of the Republic” under Articles 61, 62 bis, and 67 of the Tunisian Penal Code. The case has come to be commonly referred to as the “Conspiracy Case.”
On 05 February 2025, the Second Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance issued severe sentences in the case, ranging from five to 54 years in prison, along with the confiscation of property and assets for 41 defendants, some of whom managed to leave the country.
The sentences included Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement and former Speaker of Parliament, who refused to appear before the court, receiving 22 years in prison and a fine of 80,000 Tunisian dinars. His son, Moaz Ghannouchi, was sentenced to 25 years, his daughter Somaya Ghannouchi to 35 years, his son-in-law and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafik Bouchelka to 34 years, and former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi to 35 years.
Local sources confirmed that the current government is using the judiciary to eliminate political opponents and critics, including human rights activists, journalists and bloggers, in a continuing campaign of harassment and repression due to their opposition and peaceful activities.
The same case also resulted in prison sentences for several journalists, including:
Chadha Hadj Mbarek: On 05 October 2021, journalist Chadha Hadj Mbarek was arrested and imprisoned as part of the wave of arrests linked to the Instalingo Company case. After prolonged investigations, she was released on 19 June 2021, but was re-arrested on 22 October 2023 and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison.
On 15 May 2025, Mbarek announced a hunger strike “in protest against being denied her right to medical treatment and medication after worsening pain in her spine and hand.” She ended her hunger strike on 20 May 2025 after being granted access to the necessary medical care.
Chahrazed Akacha: Journalist Chahrazed Akacha was sentenced to 27 years in prison and had to leave the country to avoid imprisonment. She completed her studies at the Institute of Journalism and News Sciences at the University of Tunis and pursued a career in journalism, producing several local investigative reports.
Noureddine Bhiri: On 03 June 2025, the Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of Appeal upheld a first-instance sentence of ten years in prison against Noureddine Bhiri, former Deputy Head of the Ennahda Movement and former Minister of Justice. The charges were linked to a social media post attributed to him by the authorities, despite his denial of authorship. Bhiri was accused of “attempting to change the structure of the state” and “inciting citizens to attack each other” under Article 72 of the Tunisian Penal Code. Although his case is not related to the Instalingo Company case, it serves as further evidence of the government’s use of the judiciary to target and eliminate political opponents.
Targeting Lawyers and Journalists
On 14 July 2025, United Nations experts issued a statement expressing their concern over the situation of lawyers in Tunisia, noting that “targeting legal professionals simply for performing their role within the judicial system or exercising their freedom of expression constitutes a direct threat to the integrity of legal proceedings in Tunisia and may endanger the right to a fair trial.”
The experts also expressed their “regret at other reported cases of legal professionals in the country who have been criminally charged and even sentenced to long prison terms simply for defending their clients and expressing their opinions publicly, such as Dalila Ben Mbarek Msadek, Islam Hamza, Ayachi Hammami, Ghazi Chaouachi, Mehdi Zagrouba and Alazhar Akrami.”
Authorities have restricted press and media coverage of the sessions of the alleged “conspiracy” case, and several journalists have been barred from attending, including Bouchra Sellami, a reporter for Mosaïque FM, and Monia Ben Hamadi, a correspondent for the French daily newspaper “Le Monde”.
Recommendations
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights calls on Tunisian authorities to:
- Monitor judges’ compliance with fair trial procedures and ensure that defense teams can make independent decisions while reviewing the judicial files related to cases brought against prisoners of conscience;
- Expedite the consideration of the proposed amendment to Decree-Law No. 54 on Combating Cybercrime, currently under discussion in the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, and suspend its application until the anticipated amendments are implemented;
- Release all prisoners of conscience in Tunisia, including human rights defenders, journalists, and political activists; and
- Guarantee that all journalists, photographers, online activists and human rights defenders in Tunisia can carry out their legitimate activities under all circumstances without fear of reprisals or any restrictions, including judicial harassment.
