Tunisia: Further Information: Politicians Unjustly Held For Over A Year

Opposition politicians Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, Khayyam Turki, Issam Chebbi, Ghazi Chaouachi, Ridha Belhaj and Abdelhamid Jelassi have been arbitrarily detained since February 2023 on unfounded “conspiracy against state security” accusations. In January 2024, a judge rejected the latest appeals against the prolonged pre-trial detention of the six detainees submitted by the Committee for the Defence of Political Detainees. Tunisia’s anti-terrorism court is investigating all of them for trying to “change the nature of the state” under Article 72 of the Penal Code which carries the death penalty. We call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release them and drop the charges against them as the charges stem from the peaceful exercise of their human rights.