A Tunisian court has handed down a death sentence to a 51-year-old man for Facebook posts deemed offensive to President Kais Saied, marking an unprecedented move in the country’s legal history and igniting outrage among rights groups and online communities. The verdict, delivered on Wednesday in the city of Nabeul, has drawn sharp condemnation from human rights advocates and has intensified concerns about the shrinking space for free speech and dissent in Tunisia since President Saied’s consolidation of power in 2021.
The defendant, identified by rights activists as Saber Chouchane, was convicted on three serious charges: attempting to overthrow the state, insulting the president, and spreading false information online. According to his lawyer, Oussama Bouthelja, Chouchane was also found guilty of insulting the minister of justice and the judiciary, with some of his posts classified as incitement by the court. The judges ruled that his Facebook activity violated both Tunisia’s penal code and the controversial 2022 cybercrime law known as Decree 54.
Decree 54, introduced by President Saied in September 2022, criminalizes the production or dissemination of "false news" with the intent to harm public safety, national defense, or the rights of others, or to sow terror among the population. This law has been widely criticized by rights organizations for its chilling effect on free speech. Dozens of critics of President Saied have faced prosecution under this law, and many remain in detention, reports AFP. The Paris-based Tunisian human rights group CRLDHT described Chouchane’s sentence as setting “a serious precedent” and called for his immediate release, warning that Tunisia has reached “unprecedented levels of human rights violations.”
Chouchane’s case stands out not only for the severity of the sentence but also for his personal circumstances. According to his lawyer, he is a father of three, works as an occasional day laborer, and suffers from a permanent disability caused by a workplace accident. Bouthelja described his client as having a limited educational background and little influence online. “Most of the content he shared was copied from other pages, and some posts received no engagement at all,” Bouthelja wrote in a statement on Facebook. In court, Chouchane reportedly stated that his intent was not to incite unrest, but rather to draw authorities’ attention to his difficult living conditions.
The court’s decision has sparked a wave of criticism from both local and international observers. Rights groups have called the ruling shocking and unprecedented, arguing that it reflects a broader clampdown on dissent that has accelerated since President Saied assumed near-total control of the government in July 2021. The CRLDHT, in particular, has urged for Chouchane’s immediate release and for Tunisia to halt the use of the death penalty in such cases.
Under Tunisian law, an attack intended to change the state structure or incite residents to attack each other with weapons, causing chaos, murder, and robbery on Tunisian soil, is punishable by death. However, while death sentences continue to be issued by courts, Tunisia has not carried out an execution since 1991, when a serial killer was put to death. The country’s continued use of capital punishment in its legal code, despite the long-standing moratorium on executions, has been a point of contention for years.
Chouchane has been in pretrial detention since January 2024, and his legal team has already announced plans to appeal the verdict. "An appeal against the ruling will be filed," Bouthelja confirmed. The legal battle is expected to draw even more attention to Tunisia’s evolving judicial landscape, especially as critics accuse the judiciary of following political instructions. President Saied, for his part, maintains that the courts operate independently and are committed to protecting individual freedoms.
The broader context of the ruling cannot be ignored. Since President Saied’s election in 2019 and his subsequent consolidation of power two years later, Tunisia has experienced a marked decline in civil liberties, according to numerous rights groups and observers. The introduction of Decree 54 has been seen as emblematic of this trend, with its vague definitions and harsh penalties providing authorities with significant leeway to target critics and dissenters. As The Guardian and AFP have reported, dozens of Saied’s critics have been prosecuted under this law, and the climate for political expression has grown increasingly repressive.
For many Tunisians, the case of Saber Chouchane is particularly troubling because of his ordinary background. As multiple outlets have noted, he is not a prominent activist or political figure, but rather an everyday citizen with little formal education and limited online presence. Rights advocates argue that this makes the severity of his punishment even more alarming, suggesting that the government’s crackdown on dissent is reaching ever deeper into society. “The decision has prompted outrage online and raised concerns about judicial independence and political repression,” reported BBC.
Observers have also highlighted the symbolic significance of this being the first known death sentence in Tunisia for social media posts. While heavy prison sentences have been handed down in similar cases since 2021, no one had previously received the death penalty for online speech. This, critics say, signals a dangerous escalation in the government’s approach to dissent and could have a chilling effect on free expression across the country.
Despite the gravity of the sentence, it remains unclear whether the death penalty will actually be carried out. Tunisia’s de facto moratorium on executions has held for over three decades, and it is possible that the sentence could be commuted or overturned on appeal. Nevertheless, rights groups warn that the damage to Tunisia’s reputation as a relative beacon of freedom in the region has already been done. The CRLDHT and others continue to call on the international community to pressure Tunisian authorities to respect human rights and due process.
As the appeal process unfolds, the case of Saber Chouchane will likely remain a flashpoint for debates about free speech, judicial independence, and the future of democracy in Tunisia. For now, the story serves as a stark reminder of the risks faced by ordinary citizens who dare to speak out in a rapidly changing political landscape.
