Overview

• A Tunisian court has sentenced over 40 opposition leaders, businessmen, and lawyers on charges of conspiring against state security, with sentences ranging from 13 to 66 years.
• The trial, which began in March 2025, has been widely condemned by human rights groups and opposition figures as politically motivated and emblematic of President Kais Saied’s authoritarian consolidation of power.
• Journalists and civil society groups were barred from attending the proceedings, prompting protests and accusations of judicial opacity.
• More than 20 individuals charged in the case have fled abroad since being accused, highlighting the climate of political repression in the country.
• Protests erupted outside the court as activists, lawyers, and families of the defendants decried the trial as a farce and called for the release of political prisoners.