The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) calls on the Tunisian authorities to drop all charges and dismiss the sham criminal cases against Sihem Bensedrine, who faces trial tomorrow on trumped-up “fraud”, “bribery” and “abuse of official capacity” charges in connection with her legitimate work as President of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission (Instance vérité et dignité, IVD).
“Once again, the Tunisian authorities have sought to weaponize the criminal justice system to delegitimize the transitional justice process and silence a prominent human rights defender”, said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. “To avert yet another travesty of justice, the spurious charges against Sihem Bensedrine and her co-defendants must be dropped immediately.”
On 1 June 2026, the Tunis Court of First Instance held the first trial hearing in Bensedrine’s case despite the fact that neither her nor her lawyers had received a copy of the decision of the Tunis Court of Appeal’s indictment chamber detailing the charges and the specific allegations against her. In light of this, on the first day of her trial, Bensedrine’s lawyer requested and was granted an adjournment. However, the Court re-listed the trial for 18 June 2026, the date of an announced nationwide lawyers’ strike, giving rise to concern about whether her right to legal representation at trial would be violated.
On 18 June 2026, while the Court permitted international legal observers, including from the ICJ, to attend the hearing, it barred other members of the public from attending, including Bensedrine’s family members, all journalists, and representatives of civil society organizations. Contrary to international human rights law and standards, the Court provided no reasons for this decision. On the day, as a result of the lawyers’ strike, a Bar Association representative was on duty to cover all cases being heard, including Bensedrine and her co-defendants. At the hearing, the Bar Association representative applied for a trial adjournment in light of the lawyers’ strike that day. Instead of granting the adjournment on the basis that Bensedrine or her co-defendants’ trial could not take place in the absence of their lawyers, the President of the Tunis Court of First Instance eventually reluctantly granted the adjournment because one of Bensedrine’s co-defendant been hospitalized while in detention. Significantly, all other cases that day were adjourned to much later dates in July and September on the basis of the lawyers’ strike.
In light of the trumped-up charges and the overall persecutory nature of the criminal case against Bensedrine, the ICJ urges the Tunisian authorities to:
- Immediately drop all charges and end the prosecution of Sihem Bensedrine;
- Guarantee Sihem Bensedrine’s right to an effective remedy for the human rights violations she has endured, including as a result of and while being arbitrarily detained;
- End all politicized prosecutions and guarantee defendants the right to a fair trial, including by ensuring their access to both legal representation and complete case files;
- Immediately halt the ongoing delegitimization of the transitional justice process in Tunisia; and
- Guarantee the victims’ right to effective remedies for historic gross human rights violations by ensuring that cases before the Specialized Criminal Chambers proceed independently and impartially, in line with Tunisia’s legal obligations under international law.
Background
Between 2014 and 2018, Sihem Bensedrine served as the President of the IVD, which was established to pursue accountability for historic human rights violations and corruption committed by Tunisian State officials and their associates. In December 2018, the IVD concluded its work and transferred 205 cases of alleged human rights violations and corruption for prosecution before the 13 Specialized Criminal Chambers in Tunisia. In February 2025, independent UN human rights experts expressed concern that Bensedrine’s prosecution appeared to be in retaliation for her work as IVD’s President, in particular, as a result of the IVD’s referral of corruption cases for prosecution.
On 1 August 2024, the Tunis Court of First Instance remanded Bensedrine into pre-trial detention at Manouba prison, Tunis. In protest at the subsequent extension of her pre-trial detention in January 2025, Bensedrine, who was 74 years old at the time, undertook a two-week hunger strike, leading to her hospitalization.
On 18 February 2025, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights raised concern that the Tunisian authorities had detained Bensedrine and numerous other human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists, in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and to a fair trial, and called for their immediate release. One day later, the Tunis Court of Appeal ordered Bensedrine’s release on bail pending trial. She has been travel-banned since 2023.
On 24 April 2026, Bensedrine was summoned in three additional criminal cases, also in relation to her IVD work.
Under international human rights law, the press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial only for a limited number of legitimate reasons recognized, for example, in Article 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is binding on Tunisia. In light of this, the ICJ considers that the Court’s decision to exclude Bensedrine’s family members, all journalists and representatives of civil society from the hearing on 18 June 2026, coupled with the Court’s failure to provide any reasons for its decision, call into question the Court’s independence and impartiality, compounding the organization’s concern about the overall lack of fairness of the proceedings against Sihem Bensedrine, as illustrated above.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; t: +41 22 979 3800, e: said.benarbia@icj.org
Nour Al Hajj, Regional Communications & Advocacy Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; e: nour.alhajj@icj.org
