A lawyer and media personality in Tunisia has been given an eight-month prison sentence by an appeals court, as confirmed by her lawyer on Wednesday, due to comments that were seen as critical of President Kais Saied.
Sonia Dahmani, aged 56, was taken into custody on May 11 after law enforcement officers with covered faces raided the Bar association in Tunisia, where Dahmani had taken refuge following her remarks made on TV.
She was initially handed a one-year prison sentence on July 6, but she decided to appeal the decision. According to her lawyer, Pierre-Francois Feltesse, the eight-month sentence was given on Tuesday night after the session was halted without her legal team being given the chance to enter a plea.
Dahmani’s defence team said in a statement to AFP that she had been subjected to a degrading body search while in custody and compelled to wear a “long white veil” typically reserved for women facing sexual offence charges, despite there being no legal basis for it.
Feltesse indicated that her case would be brought to the attention of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The charges against her were based on comments she made on television, in which she sarcastically questioned the state of affairs in Tunisia in response to reports about sub-Saharan migrants settling in the country.
At the time, she remarked, “What extraordinary country are we talking about?”
A legal report stated that her comments were about a speech made by Saied, in which he said that Tunisia would not become a resettlement zone for migrants who were prevented from entering Europe.
Saied, elected democratically in 2019, has been ruling by decree in Tunisia since seizing power in 2021.
He is the leading candidate in the presidential election scheduled for October 6 after numerous potential candidates were disqualified. One of his two challengers, Ayachi Zammel, is currently in prison.