Translated by Federica Conti
Convictions of opponents of Kais Saied’s authoritarian regime in Tunisia are becoming increasingly frequent, as shown by arrests and convictions in June this year.
On June 24, Saadia Mosbah, the president of the anti-racist association Mnemty, was sentenced to eight years in prison for alleged financial fraud and fined approximately 41,400 dollars.
The following day, June 25, Sihem Bensedrine, one of Tunisia’s most prominent journalists and activists, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The verdict also stipulates that she and the other defendants must contribute to the payment of a fine amounting to approximately 600 million dollars. She was put on trial in connection with cases relating to her time as chair of the Truth and Dignity Commission from 2014 to 2018. Bensedrine has been one of the country’s leading activists for nearly 40 years and has been convicted multiple times, including in 1987 under President Habib Bourguiba and in 2021 under President Ben Ali. Between 2010 and the 2011 revolution, she was even forced into exile. Her life story reflects the history of a country that has criminalised human rights and democracy activists for decades.
The following day, on June 26, the Court of Appealsof Tunis sentenced Zied El-Heni, an independent journalist and a well-known critic of the president, to one year in prison. During a lecture she had given at a law school in early April, Zied El-Heni had denounced the fact that numerous journalists had been unjustly accused and imprisoned, and had labelled the judges responsible for these decisions as criminals.
Other journalists tried and imprisoned this year include Mourad Zeghidi (tried in May) and Borhen Bsaies, whose trial was described as 'legal persecution' by the NGO 'Reporters Without Borders'.
This series of political arrests targeting journalists and activists, which has increased over the last couple of months, is the result of the politicians' increasingly tight control over the judiciary, especially by the President. Saïed has now been in power for almost five years, during which time he has steadily increased his influence over the judiciary, even dissolving the High Council of the Judiciary in 2022. Over the past few years, the President has made arbitrary detention the most significant and alarming tool of political repression, as Human Rights Watch noted as early as 2015.
In response to the ongoing disregard for the independence of the legislative power, hundreds of lawyers expressed their dissent on June 18 by calling for greater transparency in the judicial process through a nationwide general strike.
The respect for fundamental human rights in Tunisia is, therefore, severely compromised by a system of political control over the judiciary that sees political opponents being put on trial. European countries share some responsibility in this context, as they hesitate to distance themselves from Tunisia and criticise it, viewing it as a useful barrier against migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean. However, this attitude risks undermining the political and moral coherence of a Union that presents itself as a champion of human rights.
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