Tunisian journalist Zied el-Heni is serving a one year prison sentence under Article 86 of the telecommunications code, following his arrest on April 24, 2026, over a social media post criticizing the prosecution of freed journalist Khalifa Guesmi, who was jailed for over three years.
On April 23, 2026, El-Heni, editor-in-chief of independent news site Tunisian Press, announced on his official Facebook page that he had received a summons to appear the following morning at the headquarters of the Fifth Central Unit for Combating Information and Communication Technology Crime in el-Aouina neighborhood in the capital Tunis.
He complied with the summons before being placed in pretrial on April 26. He then launched a hunger strike for a couple of days before his lawyers convinced to stop for health reasons, a local journalist following the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. El-Heni’s trial started on April 30, 2026, and on May 7, 2026, he was sentenced to one year in prison after being convicted of “harming others.”
El-Heni has faced repeated judicial harassment and detentions in recent years, often linked to his public commentary and online expression. In 2023, he was arrested twice for his political commentary on the online radio show “Émission Impossible” on the independent radio station IFM. On June 20, 2023, he was detained for 2 nights for allegedly insulting President Kais Saied, and on December 28, 2023, he was re-arrested for criticizing the performance of Minister of Commerce Kalthoum Ben Rejeb on the same show.
El Heni was released on January 10, 2024, and later handed a six-month suspended prison sentence, according to the journalist.
El-Heni is being held in Mornaguia prison in Tunis, and his detention comes amid a broader pattern of increasing legal action against journalists, bloggers, and commentators in Tunisia, particularly over digital content.
CPJ emailed the Tunisian presidency of the government for comment on El-Heni’s case but did not receive a response.