Sonia Dahmani, a Tunisian political commentator and lawyer, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, for three different offenses, under cybercrime Decree-Law 54. After 18 months in jail, she was released on November 27, 2025.
Dahmani faces two outstanding cases that carry potential sentences of 20 years combined under the same law, her lawyer Sami Benghazi told CPJ.
On May 11, 2024, masked police officers raided the bar association headquarters in Tunis and arrested Dahmani, a lawyer and political commentator for the independent radio station IFM and television channel Carthage Plus. She was then transferred to prison on charges of spreading false news that undermines public safety and inciting hate speech.
Dahmani was arrested after failing to respond to a May 10, 2024, summons for questioning related to her May 8 remarks on Carthage Plus, where she criticized Tunisia’s living conditions and discussed immigration issues.
On July 6, 2024, the Tunis Court of First Instance convicted Dahmani of spreading false news under the cybercrime Decree-Law 54, which was introduced by President Kais Saied in September 2022 under a new constitution, which replaced one of the Arab world’s most progressive constitutions, removing many previous protections for rights and freedoms. She was sentenced to one year in prison.
Dahmani’s family and lawyers told CPJ that ahead of her August 20 hearing, prison staff conducted a “thorough search” that included forced undressing, violating her privacy, and humiliating her.
On September 10, 2024, an appeals court upheld Dahmani’s conviction and reduced her sentence to eight months in prison without a hearing or the presence of her lawyers.
In October 2024, she was sentenced to two additional years in prison under Decree-Law 54, on charges of insulting the state, over her comments on IFM radio about sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia facing racism.
On June 30, 2025, Tunisian authorities sentenced Dahmani to two more years in prison over the same comments she was tried for in October 2024, but this time on a different medium, the television channel Carthage Plus.
Dahmani’s outstanding criminal trial has been postponed three times in 2025. The Court of First Instance delayed proceedings on July 11, 2025, pending a ruling from the Court of Cassation, then again on September 30, and on November 11, when the court said it had still not received the original case file, postponing the hearing until December, Benghazi told CPJ.
During the brief November session, Dahmani appeared in fragile health and broke down in tears, saying “I want to go home.”
Separately, on November 7, the appeals court summoned Dahmani for an appeals hearing, without prior notice, in a separate case related to her remarks about racism against sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia, for which she was initially sentenced to two years in prison, according to her lawyer. Upon Dahmani’s request, the hearing was postponed to November 21, then to November 28, and then to January 26, 2026, according to Benghazi.
On November 27, shortly after the European Parliament adopted an urgency resolution calling for her release, Dahmani was freed.
Dahmani was held at the Manouba prison in Tunis and was denied treatment and medication for health problems that developed due to her detention, according to her sister Ramla Dahmani, who told CPJ that she suffers from diabetes, thyroid issues, high blood pressure, and chronic pain.
In July 2025, CPJ emailed the president’s office requesting comment on Dahmani’s case but did not receive a reply.