Tunisian court sentences prominent lawyer critical of president to two years
Dahmani's lawyers withdrew from the trial after the judge refused to adjourn the session, claiming she was being tried twice for the same act.
The court sentenced Dahmani for statements criticising policies against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
Lawyer Bassem Trifi said that the court sentenced Dhamni to two years, calling the verdict "a grave injustice".
"What's happening is a farce. Sonia is being tried twice for the same statement," lawyer Sami Ben Ghazi, another lawyer for Dahmani, told Reuters.
Dahmani was arrested last year after making comments during a television appearance that questioned the government's stance on undocumented African migrants in Tunisia.
The case was brought under Tunisia's controversial cybercrime law, Decree 54, which has been widely condemned by international and local rights groups.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists, and critics of Saied have been imprisoned since Saied seized control of most powers, dissolved the elected parliament, and began ruling by decree in 2021, moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Saied rejects the charges and says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.
Human rights groups and activists say Saied has turned Tunisia into an open-air prison and is using the judiciary and police to target his political opponents.
Saied rejects these accusations and says he is holding everyone accountable equally, regardless of their position or name.
Tunisia was the birthplace of what later came to be known as the Arab Spring uprisings, which led to the ousting of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
Saied was democratically elected in 2019, but seized sweeping authorities in a 2021 power grab and has since ruled by decree.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
'To those rejected by the US, China opens its arms wider'
While Donald Trump upended global trade in the spring by announcing tariffs of at least 10% for all countries − and significantly higher for some − his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping put forward a very different offer. On June 11, as foreign ministers from several African states were visiting Changsha, in southeast China, the Chinese president addressed a letter to leaders across the continent. In it, he announced the removal of customs duties on products from all African countries except one, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), which continues to favor diplomatic relations with Taipei over Beijing. To those rejected by the US, China opens its arms wider. China has already been Africa's leading trading partner for 16 years. Their trade reached $296 billion (€252 billion) in 2024, and rose by another 12% in the first five months of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year. Grand ambitions Xi's announcement was more than merely symbolic. The United States under Bill Clinton had made a very similar move in 2000, removing barriers to the entry of products from sub-Saharan Africa through a law, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was designed to help economically struggling countries export. Trump already brought an end, on April 2, to the 0% tariff that applied to these states for the past 25 years, and there is no guarantee that AGOA, which expires on September 30, will be renewed.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Modi pushes further India-Africa cooperation on Ghana visit
In a speech to Ghana's parliament, Modi highlighted a major rail project that opened in the west African nation last year, financed by the India Export-Import Bank. He also underlined his country's expanding diplomatic development and business footprint in Africa. "Over 200 projects across the continent enhance connectivity, infrastructure and Industrial capacity," Modi said. On the political front he welcomed "the establishment of Ghana-India Parliamentary Friendship Society in your parliament". Modi's visit is the first to Ghana by an Indian leader in three decades. But India's rival China remains the most important backer of infrastructure across the continent, a position only strengthened as the United States and other Western powers slash aid programmes. In a meeting Wednesday, Modi and Ghanaian President John Mahama agreed to deepen security and mining ties. In November 2024, the Indian prime minister visited Nigeria, discussing trade and security at a time when Indian companies had expressed interest in investing in Nigerian industries including steel. The Indian prime minister also on Thursday called for a greater global diplomatic role for both his country and Africa, warning that "the world order created after the Second World War is changing fast". Global South's voice Modi noted that the African Union had been admitted as a permanent member to the G20 while India held the rotating presidency of the bloc. Progress on worldwide challenges including climate change, diplomacy, "terrorism" and pandemics "cannot come without giving voice to the Global South", he added. India, the world's most populous country and a nuclear-armed power, has close ties with Russia but is often in rivalry with China. Resource-rich Ghana is Modi's first stop in a tour that will take the Indian premier to four other countries in Africa, the Caribbean and South America. The visit to Accra came as he made his way to Brazil for a summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies on Sunday and Monday. Highlighting his own country's economic development aspirations to become a "developed nation by 2047," Modi said "India remains a committed partner in Africa's development journey." © 2025 AFP
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
What we know about Iranian-linked hacker group Robert?
Hackers with links to Iran are threatening to disclose emails stolen from the US President's inner circle. The hackers, who go by the pseudonym Robert, told Reuters in an online chat that they have 100 gigabytes of stolen emails from Susie Wiles, the White House's chief of staff, Lindsey Halligan, Trump's lawyer, Roger Stone, Trump's advisor and Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the centre of the Trump camp's hush-money scandal. The group, Robert, said they could sell the material but didn't provide Reuters with any details on their plans, nor describe what was in the emails. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) wrote on X that Robert's plans for a cyberattack were 'nothing but digital propaganda, a calculated smear campaign aimed at harming President Trump and defaming honourable public servants'. The threat comes a few weeks after the US bombed the Fordow uranium processing plant in Iran as part of ongoing tensions between the Middle Eastern country and Israel over nuclear weapons programmes. On June 30, CISA wrote in a statement that Iranian cyber actors might target 'vulnerable' US networks and sites of interest, noting that defence companies with ties to Israel might be at increased risk. So far, there have been some attempts on American banks, defence contractors and the air force by Iranian-backed groups. Previous attack to gain the Trump campaign's emails Robert's threat, seen by Reuters, comes a year after an Iran-backed group allegedly leaked similar emails from the Trump administration in what the government said was an attempt to interfere in the 2024 election. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that Iranian cyber actors sent 'unsolicited emails' to those involved with the campaign of former president Joe Biden with stolen material from Trump's campaign. The same information was then sent to members of the media. The FBI called it at the time the 'latest example of Iran's multipronged approach to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process'. A month later, the FBI said it had indicted three individuals from Iran with connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the country's military, in connection with the cyber attacks. The US Department of National Intelligence (DNI) considers Iran's cyber operations to be a 'major threat to the security of US networks and data,' according to a report published in March this year. State-sponsored Iranian groups and hacktivists regularly target 'poorly secured US networks and Internet-connected devices for disruptive cyber attacks,' according to the DHS report. The US, among other countries, has designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organisation since 2019.
