A Tunisian labourer has been sentenced to death on charges of insulting the country’s president, Kais Saied and assaulting state security through posts on social media.
Per Reuters, the man sentenced, 56-year-old day labourer Saber Chouchane, is a regular citizen with limited education who was simply writing posts critical of the president before his arrest last year, his lawyer, Oussama Bouthalja, told Reuters.
“The judge in the Nabeul court sentenced the man to death over Facebook posts. It is a shocking and unprecedented ruling,” Bouthalja said.
Though courts have occasionally handed down death sentences in Tunisia, this represents the first in more than three decades.
“We can’t believe it,” Jamal Chouchane, Saber’s brother, told Reuters by phone. “We are a family suffering from poverty, and now oppression and injustice have been added to poverty.”
Many Tunisians described the ruling as a deliberate attempt to instil fear among Saied’s critics, warning that such harsh measures could further stifle free expression and deepen political tensions.
Since Saied dissolved the elected parliament and started ruling by decree, Tunisia has faced growing criticism by rights groups over the erosion of judicial independence.
The opposition called Saied’s power grab a coup as most opposition leaders, whom the president has labelled as traitors, are imprisoned on various charges.