Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer

A Tunisian appeals court sentenced a lawyer and media figure to eight months in prison, her lawyer said Wednesday, over comments deemed critical of President Kais Saied.

Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia's bar association, where she had sought refuge, following her remarks made on television.

Initially sentenced to one year in prison on July 6, she appealed.

Her lawyer, Pierre-Francois Feltesse, said the eight-month sentence was issued late Tuesday without her legal representatives being able to enter a plea, after the hearing was suspended.

The defence team said in a statement to AFP that Dahmani had been "subjected a disgraceful body search" in custody and forced to wear a "long white veil" usually reserved for women prosecuted for sexual offences, despite no legal basis for it.

Feltesse said her case would be referred to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The charges stemmed from comments Dahmani made on TV, sarcastically questioning Tunisia's state of affairs in response to claims sub-Saharan migrants were settling in the country.

"What extraordinary country are we talking about?" she said at the time.

A judicial report said her comments referenced a speech by Saied, who said Tunisia would not become a resettlement zone for migrants blocked from going to Europe.

Saied, democratically elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab.

He leads the race for an October 6 presidential election, after several hopefuls were barred. One of his two challengers, Ayachi Zammel, is in prison.

Decree 54, enacted by Saied in 2022, criminalises "spreading false news".

The National Union of Tunisian Journalists says it has been used to prosecute more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures.

Human Rights Watch has said at least eight prospective candidates had been prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned in the run-up to the election.

"Holding elections amid such repression makes a mockery of Tunisians' right to participate in free and fair elections," said the New York-based advocacy group.