Tunisian man sentenced to death for Facebook posts criticising president

A Tunisian man has been sentenced to death on charges of insulting President Kais Saied and assaulting state security through social media posts.

Oussama Bouthalja, head of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, told Reuters that the man is a 56-year-old day labourer identified as Sabre Chouchane.

Bouthalja, who is also Chouchane’s lawyer, said the labourer is a regular citizen with limited education and was simply writing posts critical of the president before his arrest last year.

“The judge in the Nabeul court sentenced the man to death over Facebook posts. It is a shocking and unprecedented ruling,” Bouthalja said.

He noted that the judgement has been appealed.

After Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the long-time dictator, was ousted in 2011, Tunisia prided itself on being the birthplace of the regional revolts against authoritarianism that became known as the Arab Spring protests.

However, Saied’s election in 2019 changed the North African country’s path dramatically.

Two years into his presidency, he dissolved parliament and later rewrote the constitution.

Saied has also been accused of cracking down on political opposition and dissidents, with various arrests and sentences of political figures.