56 year-old daily labour in Tunisia sentenced to death over Facebook criticism of President Kais Saied
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "56 year-old daily labour in Tunisia sentenced to death over Facebook criticism of President Kais Saied")
Tunisia's President Kais Saied attends his swearing-in ceremony before the National Assembly in Tunis on October 21, 2024. Photograph: (AFP)
A Tunisian court sentenced 56-year-old Saber Chouchane to death over Facebook posts critical of President Kais Saied, sparking outrage from rights groups.
A Tunisian court sentenced a 56-year-old day labourer Saber Chouchane, with limited education, to death for writing a Facebook post critical of President Kais Saied. A move that has drawn widespread criticism from human rights lawyers in the country.
Chouchane, a common citizen, has limited knowledge and has been convicted on charges of spreading false news, insulting the president, the minister of justice, and the judiciary and aggression threatening state security. The decision marks a significant change in Tunisia, where no execution had been carried out in the last three decades. The decision was given on October 1, 2025, in the Court of First Instance in Nabeul, Tunisia.
The defence lawyer Oussama Bouthalja has appealed the court's judgement. "We are a family suffering from poverty, and now oppression and injustice have been added to poverty," said Jamal Chouchane, brother of Saber, to Reuters.
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Deteriorating democratic situation in Tunisia
Since the seizure of power in 2021, Saied have cracked down on critical power. This is an attempt to intimidate opponents, undermine judicial independence, suppress free speech, and stifle those who are critical of the government. Saied had consolidated power ever since he froze the parliament, termed by critics as a 'self-coup'. Since then, he had systematically damaged all democratic institutions. He had dismissed the Supreme Judicial Council, the body responsible for judicial independence. He has granted himself the power to dismiss anyone judges or prosecutors who are critical of his power. In July 2022, he reframed the constitution from a semi-presidential system to a hyper-presidential one, granting himself unchecked power. He has since marginalised and imprisoned dozens of opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists. He used these tactics to get re-elected in 2024 again. Critics argue that Saied has reversed Tunisia's democratic progress since the Arab Spring of 2011.
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