Tunisian human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine, one of the country’s best-known opponents, announced Friday June 26, 2026 that she had been sentenced to 25 years in prison in cases related to transitional justice.
“Of course, this is a decision that has nothing to do with justice. It has to do with a totalitarian regime that wants to eliminate the legacy of the IVD,” said Sihem Bensedrine, in reference to the Truth and Dignity Commission of which she was president and which interviewed thousands of victims of the Bourguiba (1957-1987) and Ben Ali (1987-2011) eras.
Justice was notably pursuing Sihem Bensedrine, a former journalist, for suspicion of falsification of part of the final report of this body, set up after the 2011 revolution. In its final report published in 2020, the IVD, which interviewed nearly 50,000 alleged victims and transmitted 173 files to justice, called for “dismantling a system of corruption, repression and dictatorship” persisting within the state institutions.
Local and international NGOs and opponents have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia, cradle of the Arab Spring, since a coup in July 2021 by President Kais Saied by which he granted himself full powers.
