Tunisian journalist Chadha Hadj Mbarek is in pretrial detention on anti-state charges amid an ongoing investigation into her involvement with a digital content company.
Mbarek, a journalist and a social media content editor at local independent content creation services firm Instalingo, was arrested from her home in the city of Sousse, south of the capital Tunis on October 5, 2021, on charges of conspiring against state security, disturbing public order, and offending the office of President Kais Saied.
On June 19, 2023, a judge dismissed the case and charges against Mbarek and ordered her release. However, the state prosecutor filed an appeal, and on July 22, 2023, Tunisian security forces stormed Mbarek’s home in Sousse and re-arrested her pending investigation in the same case.
Since 2021, Mbarek’s hearings have been repeatedly postponed, and as of late 2024, she has not been sentenced. In October 2024, a judge transferred Mbarek’s trial from Sousse to another court in Tunis, forcing her family and lawyer to travel to see her during hearings, according to a local journalist who is following the case and spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
Mbarek is one of 41 people prosecuted in connection to their work at Instalingo since September 2021 due to accusations that Instalingo was hired by members of the Ennahda opposition party to distribute content critical of Saied’s government. The local journalist told CPJ that Saied is making an example of Mbarek, who is the only journalist of the 14 people detained in this case, as a way to indicate his government’s intolerance for independent journalism since he dismissed the prime minister, froze parliament, and granted himself judicial powers in July 2021.
Mbarek was previously not listed in CPJ’s prison census because the organization was not aware of the link between her social media work and her arrest. Local journalists told CPJ this year that they believe her arrest was the beginning of a renewed crackdown on the media which intensified in the lead-up to Saied’s reelection in October 2024.
Mbarek is currently held at Al-Mas’adin prison in Sousse, and suffers from kidney disease and hearing loss that worsened in custody due to lack of medical attention. Recently, she has received treatment in prison for these ailments, the local journalist told CPJ.
In late 2024, CPJ emailed the presidency’s office requesting comment on Mbarek’s case, but did not receive a reply.