The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) expresses its dismay and profound concern at the Nabeul Court of First Instance’s sentencing of Saber Chouchane, a 51-year-old labourer, to death on 1 October 2025, following his conviction on spurious, albeit serious, “State security” charges arising from his social media posts criticizing Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed.
The ICJ opposes capital punishment in all cases without exception. The death penalty constitutes the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a fundamental violation of the right to life.
On 22 January 2024, the Tunisian authorities arrested and detained Chouchane, and subsequently charged him with “attacks with a view to changing the nature of the State”, under article 72 of the Penal Code, which carries the death penalty upon conviction, as well as with “offending the President of the Republic”, under article 67 of the Penal Code, and with “spreading false news”, under article 24 of Decree-Law 2022-54 on Cybercrime.
On 22 March 2025, the investigating judge at the Nabeul Court of First Instance concluded the investigation, confirming the charges against Chouchane and rejecting his bail application.
On 3 April 2025, the Indictment Chamber of the Nabeul Court of Appeal upheld all the charges against Chouchane and referred him for trial. He spent over 18 months in detention between his arrest and his trial on 1 October 2025.
Following the verdict on 1 October, an appeal was lodged against the conviction and sentence, but was subsequently withdrawn on 6 October 2025. On the same day, President Saïed pardoned Chouchane, thereby extinguishing his sentence and triggering his release without quashing the conviction itself. Notably, the pardon was issued despite the fact that the first instance guilty verdict had yet to become final. Under Tunisian law, a verdict becomes final only on the expiry of 10 days from the date of the judgment if neither party has appealed against it. According to article 373 of the Tunisian Criminal Procedure Code, the President may only issue a pardon once a criminal conviction becomes final.
With respect to capital punishment, while Tunisia is still a retentionist country, it has been abolitionist in practice, with the last known execution carried out in 1991. In light of this, the ICJ is extremely concerned that a Tunisian court, in a country that has observed a de facto moratorium on executions since 1991, could hand down a death sentence following a conviction for any “crime”, let alone one on spurious criminal charges arising from the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression.
In this connection, the ICJ urges Tunisia to formally commit to a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view towards its total abolition, as called for, most recently, on 17 December 2024, when two-thirds of the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of the 10th resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty. This resolution renews its long-standing call on “all States to establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty”, a global exhortation that Tunisia should follow forthwith.
The case against Chouchane is but the latest in Tunisia’s escalating crackdown on dissent and media freedom, including through the instrumentalization of Decree-Law 2022-54 on Cybercrime and certain Penal Code provisions, all of which have been used to arbitrarily prosecute and detain journalists, lawyers and civil society actors solely for carrying out their professional duties and/or for their legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression.
In light of the above, the ICJ calls on the Tunisian authorities to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest, detention and prosecution of dissenting voices, and to uphold the rule of law and judicial and prosecutorial independence.
