The President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights and his attorney said Friday that a Tunisian man had been sentenced to death on accusations of insulting the president and threatening national security through social media posts.
In Tunisia, where President Kais Saied has strengthened limits on free expression since seizing nearly all of the country’s authorities in 2021, the ruling is unique.
According to his attorney, Oussama Bouthalja, the 56-year-old day laborer Saber Chouchane, who was convicted, is a normal citizen with little education who was merely posting critical posts about the president prior to his arrest last year, Reuters reported.
“The individual was given a death sentence by the judge in the Nabeul court because of his Facebook posts. The decision is startling and unheard of,” Bouthalja declared.
