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Tunisian lawyer and prominent media commentator Sonia Dahmani has been sentenced to two years in prison over public remarks she made regarding the state of the country’s correctional facilities.
A Tunis court handed down the verdict on Monday following a judicial hearing late last week, according to her defence lawyer, Sami Ben Ghazi, who confirmed that an appeal has already been filed.
The legal action stems from an official complaint lodged by Tunisia’s prison administration following a 2023 radio interview.
During the broadcast, Dahmani openly criticised the substandard conditions within the nation’s jails.
Her prosecution relies on a controversial 2022 “false information” decree introduced by President Kais Saied, which human rights organisations have repeatedly condemned as a legal mechanism designed to stifle domestic dissent and free speech.
Dahmani, an outspoken critic of President Saied, faces a mountain of legal challenges with active prosecutions across five separate cases, all tied directly to her media appearances.
This latest sentencing comes shortly after she was freed last November, having served more than 18 months in prison for separate public remarks denouncing racism, including criticising the existence of segregated buses and cemeteries for Black people in parts of the country.
This systematic judicial crackdown reflects a broader political shift in the North African nation.
President Saied originally took office in 2019 after Tunisia emerged as the sole surviving democracy from the Arab Spring uprisings.
However, following a sweeping power grab by Saied in 2021, international rights groups have continuously warned of an aggressive rollback of fundamental civil liberties and political freedoms across the country.
