Tunisian activist sentenced to 25 years in jail

The former president of the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Authority (IVD), Sihem Bensedrine, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for corruption, Amnesty International reports, adding it has been prevented from attending her trial despite its public nature.

According to the NGO IVD created by Sihem Bensedrine, representatives of its French-speaking Belgian section were repeatedly refused access to the hearing at the end of which the latter was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment.

The authorities present successively invoked a mission order deemed non-compliant, then the lack of coordination with the justice ministry.

Amnesty International recalls that the right to attend a public hearing is guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Tunisia.

Ms. Bensedrine, a figure in Tunisian transitional justice after the fall of Ben Ali in 2011, was on trial for accusations of falsification of the final report of the IVD, submitted in 2019 after a mandate
devoted to the census of human rights violations, committed between 1953 and 2011.

She had already been detained for six months in 2024-2025 before her release.

The NGO denounces prosecutions that it considers linked to a climate of growing repression against human rights defenders, journalists and opponents in Tunisia, in a context of strengthening presidential powers since 2021.

The Tunisian authorities have not communicated publicly on the accusations made by Amnesty International concerning access to the trial.

Amnesty International has announced its intention to continue its work documenting the human rights situation in Tunisia.

MK/AK/Sf/fss/as/APA