Interactive: All Conspirators: How Tunisia Uses Arbitrary Detention to Crush Dissent

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Lawyer and former minister Lazhar Akremi was arrested on February 13, 2023, as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known, after counterterrorism forces raided and searched his house. In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country. On July 13, 2023, a judge granted Akremi provisional release but placed him under a travel ban and banned him from appearing in public. The ban from public places was later lifted.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Akremi, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Akremi and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

Akremi is also facing charges based on a complaint filed by the justice minister for his criticism of President Kais Saied’s arbitrary dismissal of 57 magistrates in 2022 in connection with a video he posted on Facebook. If convicted, he faces a total of up to four years in prison under Penal Code article 128 for “accusing, without proof, a public agent of violating the law,” and under Telecommunications Code article 86 for “harming others via public telecommunications networks.”

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Lawyer and politician Ridha Belhaj, 63, was arrested on February 24, 2023, as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known. In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country. The next day, an investigating judge of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Tunis First Instance Court questioned him about his political ties and activities before detaining him.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Belhaj, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Belhaj, who was heard only once by the investigating judge, has been charged for meeting or having contact with opposition activists and diplomats. He has been detained for 24 months at time of writing, exceeding the 14-month legal limit of remand detention under Tunisian law.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Belhaj and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

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Political activist Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, 56, was arrested by security officers in his home in Tunis on February 23, 2023, as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known. In this case, a Tunis prosecutor charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Ben Mbarek, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Ben Mbarek, who was heard only once by the investigating judge, has been charged for meeting or having contact with opposition activists and diplomats. The investigating judge accused him of “being a link between foreign parties and the suspects" and Ben Mbarek was additionally charged with “insulting the president” for allegedly calling President Saied a “maniac” during a demonstration.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Ben Mbarek and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

On February 22, 2024, Jaouhar Ben Mbarek was sentenced to six months imprisonment in absentia under the Decree-Law 54 on Cybercrime for declaring on the radio on January 11, 2023, that the 2022 parliamentary elections were a “comedy.” The initial complaint was filed by the head of Tunisia's electoral commission, which President Saied restructured in April 2022 to place under his control, according to Facebook post by Ben Mbarek’s sister Dalila. 

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Sihem Bensedrine, 74, is a prominent human rights defender and former president of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, which was tasked with uncovering abuses committed between 1955 and 2013 and proposing measures for accountability, remedy, and rehabilitation. She has worked for nearly 40 years to expose human rights violations in Tunisia. On August 1, 2024, a judge ordered her detained on charges of “using her position to gain unfair advantage,” “fraud,” and “forgery” in connection with the Commission’s final report.

Bensedrine was detained apparently in retaliation for her work on accountability for decades of human rights abuses. She has strongly criticized President Saied and denounced his “incessant assaults on democracy.” On August 8, 2024, three UN experts said Bensedrine’s arrest “could amount to judicial harassment…for work she has undertaken” as head of the Commission. She faces prosecution in four other cases related to that work.

The public prosecutor of the Tunis First Instance Court opened an investigation into Bensedrine in February 2023, following a May 2020 complaint by a former Commission member who claimed Bensedrine had falsified the Commission’s official report on alleged corruption in the banking system. The complainant claimed that the final report published in the Official Gazette was inconsistent with a prior version presented to former President Beji Caid Essebsi on December 31, 2018. However, the 2018 draft was unfinished, and Commission members were expected to edit the draft in January 2019, as confirmed by Commission minutes reviewed by Human Rights Watch. According to Bensedrine’s lawyers, her detention is based solely on this one complaint.

On January 14, 2025, Bensedrine began a hunger strike to protest her detention in Manouba prison. On January 26, she was transferred to a hospital and denied family visits. On January 28, a judge extended her detention four more months. She ended her hunger strike on January 30 due to serious risks to her health.

On February 19, a judge ordered the release of Bensedrine pending trial but placed her under a travel ban.

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Riadh Bettaieb, 64, a dual Tunisian and French national, former investment and international cooperation minister, and Ennahda party member, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for “attempting to change the nature of the state” and “conspiring against external state security. Bettaieb has been detained since February 23, 2023, and has no ties to Instalingo, according to a source with knowledge of the case.

Police arrested Bettaieb at Tunis International Airport without showing a warrant, as he was about to board a plane to France. Bettaieb was only informed of the accusations against him hours later, when officers of the Complex Financial Crime Unit of the National Guard questioned him in El Gorjani barracks.

Bettaieb was heard by an investigative judge on February 27 at the Sousse 2 First Instance Court, who questioned him about the Ennahda party and about a 2014 check for 75,000 Tunisian dinars (US$24,000) paid to another suspect in the case. A source with knowledge of the case file told Human Rights Watch that Bettaieb’s defense lawyers provided evidence that it was repayment of a loan borrowed months earlier. The judge nevertheless issued a detention warrant. Bettaieb was also accused of “smuggling cash from Turkey and Qatar” into Tunisia as part of a “criminal conspiracy,” mainly based on pictures found on another defendant’s phone showing Bettaieb with a high-ranking Turkish official, which does not constitute credible evidence.

On July 20, 2023, Bettaieb was charged with attempting to “change the nature of the state,” “undermining the state’s external security,” “insulting the president,” and money laundering.

Messadine prison authorities have at times withheld medication that Bettaieb’s family brought him from France to treat symptoms of his type 2 diabetes, his family told Human Rights Watch. They also failed to provide Bettaieb’s medical results after he was admitted to the hospital twice between 2023 and 2024 for health crises.

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Former justice minister and Ennahda party leader Noureddine Bhiri, 66, was arrested on February 13, 2023, in his home in Tunis. An investigative judge heard and detained him the next day in connection with a Facebook post in which he allegedly urged Tunisians to demonstrate against President Saied on January 14, 2023. Two of his lawyers told Human Rights Watch the accusation never even provided evidence of the alleged post’s existence. On October 18, 2024, a Tunis court sentenced Bhiri to 10 years in prison in this case.

Bhiri was also charged as part of the notorious February 2023 “Conspiracy Case.” In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country, under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions and private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial began on March 4, 2025.

Since December 2023, Bhiri has been detained in a separate case in which he had previously been unlawfully detained in early 2022 and is under investigation in at least one other conspiracy case.

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Investigative journalist Mohamed Boughalleb was detained from March 22, 2024, to February 20, 2025, for investigating misuse of public funds and questioning management of public spending.

Boughalleb was arrested in front of his son’s elementary school in Tunis by officers of the National Guard. They took him to the El Aouina Barracks, where the Information and Communication Technologies Crime Unit questioned him about critical comments on his personal Facebook page, TV channel Carthage+, and radio station Cap FM, regarding the size of the religious affairs minister’s delegations during trips abroad, one of his lawyers told Human Rights Watch. The initial complaint was filed by an official of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, according to the same source.

Boughalleb spent four days in custody before the public prosecutor ordered him detained on March 26, 2024. On April 17, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for “blaming a public official of unlawful acts in relation to their duties, without establishing the truth.” On June 28, 2024, the Tunis Appeals Court increased Boughalleb’s sentence to eight months in prison.

On April 5, 2024, Boughalleb was detained in a separate case, also in connection with public statements. The journalist is under investigation based on at least one other complaint filed by the religious affairs minister, Ibrahim Chaibi, whom the journalist had been investigating for suspected corruption.

According to his brother and lawyer Jameleddine, Boughalleb’s health condition severely deteriorated in detention where he was faced poor detention conditions and lack of adequate medical care. His eyesight and hearing were affected, and he developed cardiac problems.

On February 20, a judge ordered the release of Boughalleb pending trial but placed him on a travel ban.

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Ghazi Chaouachi, a 62-year-old lawyer, former acting state property minister, and ex-member of parliament, was arrested on February 24, 2023, as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known. In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen with plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country. The next day, an investigating judge of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Tunis First Instance Court questioned him about his political ties and activities before detaining him.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Chaouachi, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Chaouachi, who was heard only once by the investigating judge, has been charged with meeting or having contact with opposition activists and diplomats and for “insulting the president” in private messages. He has been detained for 24 months at time of writing, exceeding the 14-month legal limit of remand detention under Tunisian law.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Chaouachi and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and nvestigatethe circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

Ghazi Chaouachi is also accused—based on a complaint by Justice Minister Leila Jaffel—of spreading “fake news” under the cybercrime Law and the penal code, for stating on November 18, 2022, that the Ministry of Justice had been fabricating files against the opposition and harassing judges dismissed by President Saied on June 1, 2022. He could face up to 12 years in prison. On January 29, 2024, a Tunis court sentenced Chaouachi’s son, Elyes, in absentia to three years in prison for publicly denouncing his father’s detention conditions.

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Lawyer and politician Issam Chebbi, 67, was arrested on February 22, 2023, by counterterrorism forces on the street in Tunis as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known. In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country. The officers didn’t show an arrest warrant, his wife Faiza told the media.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Chebbi, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Chebbi, who was heard only once by the investigating judge, has been charged for meeting or having contact with opposition activists and diplomats. He has been detained for 24 months at time of writing, exceeding the 14-month legal limit of remand detention under Tunisian law.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Chebbi and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

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Sonia Dahmani, a prominent lawyer and media commentator, was arrested on May 11, 2024, by masked plain clothes security forces who stormed the Tunisian Bar Association headquarters. This followed sarcastic comments she made on the TV channel Carthage+ on May 7, questioning the claim, backed by President Saied, that Black African migrants were seeking to settle in Tunisia.

On July 6, 2024, a Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced Dahmani to a year in prison for her remarks under Decree-Law 54 on Cybercrime. Her sentence was later reduced to eight months on appeal. But on October 24, she was sentenced in another case under the same decree to two years in prison for statements she made on racism in Tunisia. On January 24, 2025, her sentence was reduced to a year and a half on appeal. According to one of Dahmani’s lawyers, she still faces trial in three other cases in connection with her peaceful expression.

In August 2024, Dahmani filed a complaint for acts of torture and rape in Manouba prison against the prison director and a guard following rights violations in detention on August 20, 2024. That day, Dahmani was subjected to an “intrusive strip search which violated her physical integrity and affected her psychologically,” her sister told Human Rights Watch.

Although prisons and other government institutions can sometimes claim penetrative or humiliating strip searches are a security necessity, these practices are often used abusively and primarily to intimidate or punish prisoners. They can also constitute rape, torture, and degrading treatment, and be a serious human rights violation.

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Senior Ennahda party leader and former member of parliament Said Ferjani, 70, has been detained since February 27, 2023, as part of the Instalingo case. According to his lawyers and family, Ferjani has no connection to Instalingo. On February 4, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for “conspiracy against state security” and attempting to “change the nature of the State.” An investigating judge of the Sousse 2 First Instance Court heard and detained him on March 1, 2023.

The public prosecutor accused Ferjani, based on a “witness” deposition, of blackmailing an official with a sex tape—the existence of which was never proven—and of “trying to influence appointments in the interior ministry” for Ennahda’s benefit with the help of “internal and foreign parties.” Ferjani was charged with attempting to “change the nature of the state,” “undermining external State security,” “insulting the president,” and money laundering.

Separately, Ferjani faces unfounded terrorism-related and “conspiracy” charges in the notorious “Conspiracy Case” of February 2023. He was charged with recruiting influential people to carry out the conspirators’ propaganda.

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Rached Ghannouchi, 83, ex-president of the Ennahda opposition party and former speaker of parliament, is a prominent opponent of President Saied’s one-man rule. Detained since April 2023 in Mornaguia prison in Tunis, Ghannouchi is serving several sentences and faces investigations and charges in over a dozen cases, including some directly related to his freedom of expression.

On April 17, 2023, Ghannouchi was arrested at his home by plainclothes officers who did not show an arrest warrant, according to one of his lawyers. On April 20, an investigative judge issued a detention warrant against him on charges of attempting to “change the nature of the state” and “conspiring against internal state security.” This was allegedly in connection with comments he made during an April 15 meeting, warning that alienating opposition political movements, including Ennahda and “the left,” was a “project for civil war.” Ghannouchi is still awaiting trial in this case.

Ghannouchi faced a separate charge of “promoting terrorism” following a complaint by a former head of a security forces union who alleged that at a February 2022 funeral of an Ennahda party member, he said the deceased feared no “tyrants.” On May 15, 2023, a Tunis court sentenced him to a year in prison and a 1,000 dinar fine (US$320). On October 30, 2023, the Tunis Court of Appeal increased the sentence to 15 months in prison.

On February 1, 2024, a Tunis court sentenced Ghannouchi to three years in prison over accusations that his party received foreign funding, prohibited under Tunisian law. On February 4, 2025, a Tunis court sentenced him to 22 years in prison, an 80,000 dinar fine (US$25,200), and a five-year ban from public office, in addition to seizure of his assets and real estate, for allegedly conspiring to change the nature of the state, conspiring against external state security, insulting the president, and money laundering, as part of the Instalingo case.

Prior to his imprisonment, Ghannouchi had experienced Parkinson's symptoms in his left hand and was following a treatment to slow progression of the disease. During his imprisonment, where he received inadequate treatment, it has progressed to his right hand, and has significantly affected his daily life, including his ability to write. According to his family, the authorities allowed him only a few physiotherapy sessions, denied his requests for regular treatment, and refused to give his family access to his medical records.

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Chadha Hadj Mbarek, 39, a journalist and Instalingo employee, is serving a five-year prison sentence for attempting to “change the nature of the state.” She has been detained since July 22, 2023, apparently merely for her work as journalist in the company.

According to her lawyer, Hadj Mbarek’s role was to produce lifestyle content for a Facebook page managed by Instalingo and to proofread other content. She was first arrested by plainclothes security officers at the Instalingo headquarters in the suburbs of Sousse and taken into custody on September 10, 2021. An investigative judge of the Sousse 2 First Instance Court heard Hadj Mbarek on September 17, 2021, and ordered her release pending an investigation. However, the public prosecutor appealed the judge’s decision, and a detention warrant was issued for her in November 2021. The investigative judge decided to close the investigation and drop all charges against her and other suspects on June 16, 2023.

Nevertheless, the public prosecutor again appealed the judge's decision. On July 20, 2023, the chamber of accusations formally indicted Hadj Mbarek for “undermining the state’s external security” and ordered her immediate detention. Within hours, National Guard cars surrounded Hadj Mbarek’s family home in Kelibia and officers arrested the journalist, according to her brother Amen Hadj Mbarek.

Hadj Mbarek has faced poor conditions of detention and a lack of reasonable accommodation and support for her disability. She has a state-recognized hearing disability, and her incarceration conditions in Messadine prison are not suitable for her disability, which has since gotten worse. Her brother Amen told Human Rights Watch that during family visits, they were hardly able to hear each other through the glass and prison authorities did not provide paper and pen to help the family communicate.

Since her unjust prosecution and her first arrest, Hadj Mbarek has experienced depression and was taking prescribed anti-depressants. “She lost her livelihood and being associated with a conspiracy and terrorism case made her feel like a pariah,” Amen said. Yet prison authorities have consistently refused to allow Hadj Mbarek access to her medication, her brother said, and cellmates “ostracized her,” called her a “terrorist,” and beat her twice while in detention. Prison authorities have since transferred Hadj Mbarek to another cell.

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Hamzaoui, 36, the former independent mayor of Ezzahra in the southern outskirts of Tunis, has been detained since May 18, 2023. Masked officers of the National Guard’s Anti-Terrorist Unit arrested him in his home in Ezzahra following an investigation into terrorism-related offenses and “conspiracy” against state security. The officers took him to El Aouina Barracks and questioned him.

The investigation, which involves 21 suspects including several political opposition figures and former officials, is based on a written accusation by an anonymous informant, claiming that the former head of President Saied’s presidential cabinet, Nadia Akacha, monitored the president’s movements during her time in office and relayed the information to Hamzaoui, who passed it on to other suspects for the purpose of assassinating the president. According to one of Hamzaoui’s lawyers, however, the authorities have not provided any evidence of communication between Hamzaoui and any of the other suspects.

On June 1, 2023, an investigative judge of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Tunis First Instance Court questioned Hamzaoui regarding potential connections with other suspects in the case, including Akacha. As of March 2025, Hamzaoui has not had a hearing since.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the public prosecutor’s decision to open a judicial investigation and found that Hamzaoui is accused of several terrorism-related crimes and money-laundering, “conspiring” against internal and external state security, “criminal conspiracy,” as well as “insulting the president.” If convicted, he could face the death penalty under several of these provisions.

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Chaima Issa is a leading figure of the National Salvation Front opposition coalition. She was arrested on February 22, 2023, and detained as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” in which a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country. On July 13, 2023, a judge granted Issa provisional release but placed her under a travel ban and banned her from appearing in public places. The ban from public places was later lifted.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Issa, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial began on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Issa and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

In a separate case, the Tunis Military Court of Appeal sentenced Issa on October 10, 2024, to a six-month suspended sentence for comments she made during a December 2022 radio interview about the military’s role in the 2022 parliamentary elections. She had been sentenced in first instance on December 13, 2023, to a one-year suspended jail term under Decree-Law 54, the Military Justice Code, and the Penal Code.

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Abdelhamid Jelassi, a 64-year-old political activist and former Ennahda party member, was arrested on February 11, 2023, as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known. In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen of plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Jelassi, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Jelassi, who was only heard once by the investigating judge, faces terrorism-related and conspiracy charges for publishing articles critical of President Saied’s power grab, calling it a “coup” on a radio station, and for communicating with political opponents and foreign nationals about how to engage with other states regarding Tunisia’s political situation. He has been detained for 24 months at time of writing, exceeding the 14-month legal limit of remand detention under Tunisian law.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

Jelassi has throat cancer and other health complications and needs regular hospital treatment. Since his imprisonment, he has developed respiratory problems and has not received the medical care he needs.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Jelassi and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.

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Rached Khiari, 42, a journalist and former member of parliament for the Islamist coalition al-Karama, has been prosecuted on several occasions since 2021 for criticism of the authorities. He spent more than two years in prison for speech offenses, including following two military court convictions, his lawyer Samir Ben Amor told Human Rights Watch.

An investigative judge of the Tunis Military Court of First Instance issued an arrest warrant against Khiari in 2021, after he publicly claimed President Saied received US funding for his 2019 presidential campaign, Ben Amor said. He was arrested on August 3, 2022. The Tunis Military First Instance Court initially declined jurisdiction in favor of the civilian court system on January 17, 2023. However, on March 2, 2023, the Tunis Military Court of Appeal overturned the decision and sentenced him to six months in jail for “conspiring against state security” and “undermining military discipline, obedience and respect for the president or criticizing the actions of senior commanders in a way that undermines their dignity.”

On December 8, 2022, while in detention, Khiari was handed a three-month prison sentence in a separate case under the Military Justice Code for allegedly disclosing information about American military presence in Tunisia in a 2016 Facebook post, although someone else published the posts, Ben Amor said. Khiari was released on August 29, 2024, after serving his sentence.

Khiari was again arrested on September 28, 2024, a day after a Tunis Appeals Court sentenced him to six months in jail for harming the “dignity of the president” and calling him a “traitor” in Facebook posts and in a radio interview dating back to 2021. A Tunis court had previously sentenced him in absentia to eight months’ imprisonment in this case on October 3, 2022.

On September 10, 2024, Khiari announced that he had left politics and the media to focus on his health. He had been treated for a benign tumor before his imprisonment and has since developed lung cancer with several protruding tumors.His lawyer said that negligence, lack of an adequate medical diagnosis, and poor detention conditions in Mornaguia prison all contributed to the progression of his illness.

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Ahmed Laamari, 73, a former member of parliament and Ennahda party member, was arrested on March 3, 2023, and spent more than six months in pre-trial detention under dubious accusations of “forming an organization aiming to prepare and commit the crime of illegally leaving the Tunisian territory.” On September 25, 2023, the Gabès First Instance Court ordered his release, but banned him from leaving the southern Gabès governorate pending trial.

The public prosecution initiated an investigation into Laamari after a Messadine jail prisoner accused him of plotting against President Saied and sending notes about it to another inmate —former MP, former minister, and businessman Mehdi Ben Gharbia —who has himself been detained since October 2021. Although the informant withdrew his claim in writing a few weeks into Laamari’s detention, the judge still proceeded with the case.

Laamari was again arrested on December 1, 2023, by officers of the Anti-Terrorism Unit in his home in Gabès. On December 14, 2023, an investigative judge of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Tunis First Instance Court questioned him and placed him in detention, his lawyer told Human Rights Watch. He stands accused of seeking to “change the nature of the state” and of “undermining the state’s external security,” “insulting the president,” and criminal association. He faces additional charges under 12 articles of Tunisia's 2015 Counterterrorism Law and could face the death penalty if convicted. Laamari was released on December 25, 2024. The next day, he was briefly rearrested in his hometown of Ben Guerdane and a Gabès court sentenced him to a three and a half month suspended sentence on December 27 for breaching the order to remain in Gabès governorate. At time of writing, his trial for “conspiracy” was set to start on April 25, 2025.

Laamari, whose eyesight deteriorated due to badly treated, diabetes-induced cataract during his first months of arbitrary detention in 2023, was due to have eye surgery around the time of his arrest in March and again in December of that year. However, he was not allowed to see a specialist regularly in Mornaguia prison and nearly lost sight in one eye. Laamari had previously been imprisoned for more than nine years between 1987 and 2011 for belonging to the Ennahda party.

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Ali Laarayedh, 69, former interior minister, former prime minister, and vice-president of the Ennahda party, has been held in pre-trial detention since December 19, 2022, on terrorism-related charges, without credible evidence. The terrorism-related charges are based on a 2015 law enacted after Laarayedh left office.

Under international human rights law, “No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.”

Laarayedh’s detention is part of a broad investigation into how thousands of Tunisians were able to leave the country and join the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and other Islamist armed groups in Syria, Iraq, and Libya after 2011, when longtime authoritarian leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. The trial started on October 28, 2024.

According to the detention warrant reviewed by Human Rights Watch, Laarayedh is accused of failing to curb the spread of Salafism, a revivalist branch of Sunni Islam, and of the rise of the Islamist armed group Ansar al-Sharia, during his time in office. The judge based the warrant on Laarayedh’s decisions and policies in office (or lack thereof), including appointments in his administration, and not specific criminal acts. Laarayedh was only heard by an investigative judge once, on December 19, 2022, throughout his 25 months in pre-trial detention. Laarayedh’s lawyers filed a complaint accusing the police of falsifying key documents in the case file, which has yet to be processed.

Laarayedh has also been accused, in a separate investigation, of seeking to “change the nature of the state,” “undermining the state’s external security,” and “insulting the president” as well as terrorism-related and other charges, one of his lawyers told Human Rights Watch. He could face the death penalty if convicted. Other public figures, including supporters as well as opponents of President Saied, have been prosecuted in this case.

Laarayedh was one of the longest held political prisoners under President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He was tortured and spent more than 11 of his 15 years in prison in solitary confinement.

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Abir Moussi, 50, is a lawyer and president of one of Tunisia's main opposition parties, the Free Destourian Party (PDL). She was also a member of the 2019 parliament dissolved by President Saied in March 2022. The PDL officially announced Moussi’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election on September 28, 2023. Just days later, on October 3, 2023, security forces arrested Moussi in front of a public administration building near Carthage presidential palace.

On the day she was arrested, Moussi had attempted to appeal presidential decrees redrafting electoral boundaries and organizing local elections. Administration officials arbitrarily refused to register her appeal. Moussi decided to protest this decision by streaming live on Facebook in front of the administration building and was arrested, her lawyer Nafaa Laribi said. Moussi was denied her right to meet with her lawyers until her hearing with an investigative judge, who ordered her detained on October 5, 2023.

Moussi faces charges of seeking “to change the form of government or to incite people to take up arms against one another or provoke disorder,” and “inciting [public officers] by violence, assault, threats, or fraudulent practices to cease performing their individual or collective duties,” in addition to charges in connection with processing personal data without consent. She could face the death penalty if convicted.

According to Laribi, security forces used excessive force during her arrest, physically injuring her, and denied her access to medical treatment, which led to complications and her transfer to the hospital on October 3, 2024.

Moussi faces proceedings in several other cases, including under Decree-Law 54 on Cybercrime.

The Electoral Commission filed four complaints against Moussi under this legislation between December 2022 and March 2023, including at least two in connection with public criticism of the election process, such as in an open letter to President Saied denouncing the Commission’s lack of legitimacy. Moussi was detained in February 2024 based on article 24 of Decree-Law 54 on Cybercrime following two of these complaints. On August 5, 2024, the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced her to two years in prison in connection with her remarks on legislative elections. On November 22, 2024, Moussi’s sentence was reduced on appeal to 16 months in prison. At time of writing she is still awaiting trial in a second Decree 54 case. 

Rached Tamboura, a 28-year-old calligraphy student, street artist, and freelance graphic designer, has been detained since July 18, 2023, for graffiti denouncing President Saied's policies towards Black African migrants and Tunisia’s migration agreement with the European Union.

That day, police officers arrested Tamboura on the street in his hometown of Monastir, south-east of Tunis, and questioned him about social media posts of a picture of graffiti on the wall of the administrative building of Monastir delegation, one of his lawyers told Human Rights Watch. The picture, which had circulated on the internet, shows a small portrait of Saied flanked by the words “racist vassal greed fascist” next to the shape of the African continent.

The public prosecutor accused Tamboura of “insulting the president” and of using communication networks to “produce, spread, disseminate…false news, data, [and] rumors,” to “slander a public official, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them,” “incite hate speech,” “violate [their] rights,” and “harm public security or national defense, or spread terror.” Tamboura was placed in pre-trial detention on July 20, 2023, after his only hearing before an investigative judge, his lawyer said.

On December 4, 2023, the Monastir First Instance Court sentenced Tamboura to two years in prison, according to the judgement reviewed by Human Rights Watch. On January 31, the Monastir Appeals Court dropped the charge of “insulting the president” but confirmed the initial sentence, according to the lawyer.

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Politician Khayam Turki, 59, was arrested on February 11, 2023, by officers of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the National Guard in his home in Tunis as part of the notorious “Conspiracy Case,” as it has become known. In this case, a Tunis investigative judge charged lawyers, political opponents, activists, researchers, and businessmen with plotting to overthrow President Saied’s authority by destabilizing the country.

On May 2, 2024, 40 of the initial 52 defendants, including Turki, were charged and referred to trial under numerous articles of the Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law, including some that carry the death penalty. Khayam was charged with “harming food security and the environment by jeopardizing the stability of food and environmental systems,” funding a “terrorist” organization, and conspiracy against internal and external state security. He has been detained for 24 months at time of writing, exceeding the 14-month legal limit of remand detention under Tunisian law

Human Rights Watch reviewed the investigating judge’s 140-page closing order of April 12, 2024—terminating the investigation and allowing the case to be referred to trial—which shows that the serious charges appear unfounded and based on scant evidence. The so-called evidence is limited to two anonymous depositions by a “witness” and an “informant,” which prompted the investigation, as well as private conversations on messaging apps between activists, foreign diplomats, journalists, and researchers. The trial started on March 4, 2025.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in August 2024 regarding the detention of Turki and seven others in this case, confirming their arbitrary detention. The Working Group called on Tunisian authorities to immediately release them, guarantee their right to reparations, and investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and arbitrary detention.