Human Rights Watch has strongly condemned the sentencing of several prominent Tunisian human rights defenders, warning that the convictions mark another major escalation in the country’s shrinking civic space and intensifying crackdown on independent activists under President Kais Saied’s administration.
In a statement released following a series of court rulings, the international rights organization revealed that Tunisian authorities have handed prison sentences and heavy financial penalties to leading figures whose work has focused on accountability, racial justice and democratic reform.
Among those convicted are Sihem Bensedrine, the former president of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, who was sentenced to a combined 25 years in prison, and anti-racism campaigner Saadia Mosbah, president of the association Mnemty (“My Dream”), whose eight-year prison sentence was upheld on appeal.
According to Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. the convictions as politically motivated and directly linked to the women’s longstanding human rights work rather than any legitimate criminal conduct.
“The harsh prison sentences and astronomical fines are another devastating blow to human rights defenders and all those fighting to preserve what remains of Tunisia’s civic space. By targeting leading human rights figures, the authorities are crushing their demands and quashing the quest for social justice in Tunisia.”
Bassam Khawaja
The organization called on Tunisian authorities to immediately overturn the convictions, release those detained and halt what it described as abusive prosecutions targeting civil society leaders.
The latest rulings come as international observers continue to express concern over democratic backsliding in Tunisia, once widely regarded as the Arab Spring’s only democratic success story.
Since President Kais Saied assumed sweeping executive powers in 2021, critics have accused his administration of weakening judicial independence, restricting political opposition and narrowing the operating space for civil society organizations.
Human Rights Watch indicated that the latest prosecutions reflect that broader pattern, with authorities increasingly relying on criminal proceedings to silence individuals who have played prominent roles in advancing accountability and defending human rights.
Bensedrine, now 75, spent decades documenting human rights abuses under successive Tunisian governments and became one of the country’s most recognizable democracy advocates. Between 2014 and 2018, she chaired the Truth and Dignity Commission, the body established under Tunisia’s transitional justice process to investigate decades of abuses committed before the 2011 revolution.
The commission’s work was designed to uncover past violations, provide justice for victims and promote institutional reform following the fall of former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Human Rights Watch argues that Tunisia’s Transitional Justice Law explicitly protects members of the commission from legal liability for work undertaken as part of their official responsibilities. Nevertheless, prosecutors charged Bensedrine in two separate cases linked directly to decisions and reports produced during her tenure.
In one case, authorities accused her of using her official position for personal or third-party benefit, fraud and forgery relating to the commission’s final report following allegations by a former commission member that sections concerning corruption in Tunisia’s banking sector had been altered.
Bensedrine was detained in August 2024 and remained in pretrial detention until February 2025, when she secured provisional release after undertaking a hunger strike.
The second case concerns an arbitral reconciliation agreement involving businessman Slim Chiboub, a son-in-law of former President Ben Ali. According to one of Bensedrine’s lawyers, the agreement at the centre of the prosecution was never implemented.
A Tunis court sentenced her to 20 years in the first case and an additional five years in the second. She remains free pending appeal.
Human Rights Watch noted that Bensedrine has faced repeated retaliation throughout her career, including imprisonment under both former President Habib Bourguiba and former President Ben Ali before living in exile until Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.
Pressure Builds on Tunisia as Human Rights Crackdown Widens
Acccording to Human Rights Watch, the campaign against civil society extends beyond transitional justice advocates to include activists combating racial discrimination and supporting migrants and refugees.
Saadia Mosbah, Founder and President of Mnemty, has become one of Tunisia’s best-known anti-racism advocates after helping secure the country’s landmark 2018 law criminalising racial discrimination.
Authorities first opened investigations into Mnemty in May 2024 amid a broader government crackdown on organisations assisting refugees and migrants.
The investigation also coincided with what Human Rights Watch described as a racist online smear campaign targeting Mosbah, who is Black, on social media accounts supportive of the government.
Mosbah was arrested on May 6, 2024. Prosecutors later charged her, seven other members of Mnemty and the organisation’s landlord with illicit enrichment, money laundering involving an organised group and accounting irregularities.
According to Human Rights Watch, Mosbah was placed in pretrial detention without first being questioned by an investigative judge and has remained imprisoned well beyond Tunisia’s legal 14-month limit for pretrial detention.
Her family has also reported that she experienced racist abuse and assaults while in custody from both inmates and prison personnel.
A Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced Mosbah to eight years in prison in March 2026.
Five additional members of Mnemty also received prison terms ranging from one to three years, although several of those sentences were suspended. Some defendants were also fined tens of thousands of dinars, while five members were reportedly stripped of their rights to vote or stand for elected office for five years.
Human Rights Watch argues that the prosecutions violate Tunisia’s obligations under international law, including commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which guarantee freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, fair trial rights and protection against arbitrary detention.
“The Tunisian authorities should strive to implement the laws and measures that Bensedrine and Mosbah fought for over decades, rather than dismantling their struggle for accountability and against discrimination,”
Bassam Khawaja
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