Tunisia court orders release of ex-truth commission head: Court spokesman - Region
A Tunisian appeals court ordered the release Wednesday of prominent human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine, though she remains banned from leaving the country as she faces charges in other cases, a court spokesman told AFP.
Bensedrine, 74 -- who headed the now-defunct Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD), tasked with uncovering abuses under the country's past autocratic rulers -- has been detained since August for allegedly "falsifying" the commission's final report, published in 2020.
She has also been accused of accepting a bribe to include a passage accusing the Franco-Tunisian Bank (BFT) of corruption, an allegation she has refuted.
Her husband, Omar Mestiri, told AFP that Bensedrine "had suffered but is in good spirits".
"She is determined to fight to assert her rights," he said, adding he was going to the Manouba prison near Tunis, where she has been held, to await her release.
In January, Bensedrine announced a hunger strike to protest her detention and was hospitalised 10 days later.
Established in 2014 in the aftermath of Tunisia's 2011 revolution, the IVD was tasked with documenting state-led human rights violations between 1955 and 2013.
The period includes the authoritarian rule of presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted during the revolution.
On Tuesday, the United Nations' human rights chief denounced the "persecution of political opponents" in Tunisia, urging the authorities to halt a wave of arrests and arbitrary detentions.
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