In recent months, journalists and human rights defenders alike have been hit with heavy sentences, often for simply speaking out.
• Sihem Bensedrine, former President of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, was sentenced to 25 years — for the content of the Commission’s own final report on transitional justice. Tunisian law explicitly shields Commission members from liability for that report. She’s appealing, still free for now.
• Saadia Mosbah, co-founder of an anti-racism association, got 8 years and a heavy fine, after being arrested on financial charges widely seen as retaliation for her migrant rights advocacy.
• Journalists Zied El-Heni, Sonia Dahmani, and Haythem El-Mekki were each sentenced to 1–2 years, mostly for social media posts critical of the authorities — often prosecuted outside press freedom protections entirely.
Besendrine’s case is an example of a major ongoing trend,h er prosecution isn’t just about one person — it threatens the credibility of transitional justice itself. If leading a UN-style truth commission can land you decades in prison, what does that signal to the next witness, whistleblower, or defender willing to document abuse? Her trial has also been marked by serious fair-trial concerns: no access to the indictment, hearings held during a lawyers’ strike, and international observers barred from attending without any explanation
Defamation charges without complainants, “Fake news” laws stretched to silence satire, financial crime accusations used against rights advocates, all of these are only example of tools chosen to punish those who speak up. It is easy to see how these are not isolated incidents, but a consistent, deliberate pattern.
The call is simple: free those imprisoned for exercising their rights, stop weaponising the justice system against critics, and let transitional justice do what it was built to do.
