Tunisian lawyer condemned to two years in jail

Tunisia’s brutal laws suppressing free speech have struck once again and jailed a lawyer for her unrelenting criticism of the state and its policies.

Tunisian lawyer Sonia Dahmani was released from jail at the end of November 2025 after 18 months in detention. Dahmani, who had been arrested live on France 24 in 2024, was sentenced on May 25th to 2 years in jail for declarations about the Tunisian penitentiary system.

According to RFI, this new trial was started after a lawsuit was filed against the lawyer by the Tunisian general administration of prisons. According to her lawyer, the Tunis Court of First Instance blames Sonia Dahmani for criticising the penitentiary system in Tunisia on the radio in 2023. 

She had already been condemned 4 times, with sentences going from 1 to 2 years of jail time. Her condemnations are all related to declarations or publications in the media, first for having, for instance, criticised racism in Tunisia, or others about comments made about a variety of different topics, such as migrants and migration flows in Tunisia. Last April, Dahmani was convicted for having criticised the existence of cemeteries and buses reserved for black people in some parts of Tunisia. 

Sonia Dahmani is prosecuted under Decree 54 on “false information” promulgated by Kaïs Saïed. This decree is often denounced and criticised by defenders of free speech and human rights since it has enabled the arrest of many Tunisian journalists, lawyers and opponents to the current government, such as lawyer and judge Ahmed Souab. Opposition to Tunisia’s President has taken to the streets in 2025, with citizens worried and believing the President is using his judiciary and police to suppress critics. 

These actions by President Kaïs Saïed have not gone unnoticed within the international community. France has condemned the trials, claiming them to be “unfair”, whilst Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has taken a strong stance against them. 

Sonia Dahmani is currently on parole. Her lawyer has announced they were appealing this new conviction, the fifth Dahmani has faced. 

RFI, Maghrebi.org