Tunisian lawyer Sonia Dahmani, who was released from detention in 2025, has been sentenced to two years in prison over comments she made about the country’s jails, her lawyer said.
A Tunis court issued the verdict following a hearing on Friday, according to defence lawyer Sami Ben Ghazi, who said he had filed an appeal. Dahmani was freed in November after spending more than 18 months in prison over comments she made denouncing racism in Tunisia.
A critic of President Kais Saied, faces prosecution in five separate cases, all tied to her comments and media appearances. Dahmani’s charges stem from a 2022 law on “false information” introduced by Saied and widely condemned by human rights groups as a tool to stifle dissent.
She was sentenced in 2024 over comments regarding migration in Tunisia. In a talk show, she had sarcastically questioned Tunisia’s state of affairs in response to claims that sub-Saharan migrants were settling in the country.”What extraordinary country are we talking about?” she said at the time.