Press rights campaigners slammed the case in opposition to Bohran Bssaies and Mourad Zghidi as “authorized persecution”.
Printed On 22 Jan 2026
A Tunisian courtroom has handed new jail phrases to 2 well-known media figures in what critics say is the federal government’s newest try and punish dissent.
The legal chamber of the Tunis Court docket of First Occasion sentenced radio journalists Bohran Bssaies and Mourad Zghidi to 3 and a half years in jail on Thursday for “cash laundering”, a judicial supply instructed Tunisia’s state TAP information company.
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The conviction provides to a growing list of cases in opposition to opposition figures, journalists, and different perceived critics of President Kais Saied, who rights teams say has overseen a wide-reaching rollback on freedoms since taking workplace in 2019.
Bssaies and Zghidi had been first jailed in May 2024 on costs of “spreading false information” beneath Tunisia’s controversial Decree Legislation 54 in opposition to cybercrime. Press rights group Reporters With out Borders (RSF) mentioned the journalists’ “solely ‘crime’ was to touch upon and criticise political selections” by Saied.
Earlier than serving their eight-month sentence, Tunisia’s judiciary introduced extra tax-related costs, which the journalists’ defence says are based mostly on routine tax issues.
RSF described the case as “authorized persecution” and urged Tunisian authorities to instantly launch Bssaies and Zghidi.
“As long as journalists are put behind bars for his or her work, the Tunisian public’s proper to info will stay significantly threatened, together with their reputable expectation to be correctly knowledgeable,” mentioned RSF’s North Africa director, Oussama Bouagila.
The case follows the arrest in December of the nation’s prime opposition determine, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi.
Chebii, 81, was sentenced to 12 years for plotting in opposition to the state, in a trial denounced by rights teams as a politically motivated “sham”.
The month prior, dozens extra opposition figures had been sentenced to as many as 45 years in prison in a so-called “conspiracy case”.
Tunisian courts have additionally ordered the discharge of a number of high-profile detainees in latest months – together with lawyer and Saied critic Sonia Dahmani and journalist Chatha Belhaj Mubarak.
“Chadha Hadj Mbarek’s launch should not stay an remoted act. Quite the opposite, it ought to pave the way in which in direction of respect for press freedom,” mentioned RSF’s Bouagila.
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 locations in media watchdog RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 international locations.
