In Tunisia, lawyers strike to denounce the heavy-handed arrest of a colleague who made sarcastic remarks about the situation in the country

“The strike was respected 100%”, according to the president of the section of the Capital Bar Association. Tunisian lawyers stopped work in all the country’s courts on Monday, May 13, to protest against the violent arrest of their colleague Sonia Dahmani at the bar’s headquarters, according to the Order of the Profession.

This mobilization was decided after the arrest by force, Saturday evening, of the lawyer and columnist Sonia Dahmani. She took refuge in the premises of the Bar Association in Tunis after being summoned to court for sarcastic remarks about the situation in the country that she had made on television.

The lawyer faces up to five years in prison

An investigating judge issued a committal warrant against Sonia Dahmani on Monday without her being interviewed, her lawyer, Dalila Msaddek, told AFP. “The judge considered that the conditions within the court were not favorable to holding this hearing”, added the lawyer. Denouncing a “judiciary under orders”dozens of lawyers demonstrated in the morning in front of the court to demand the release “immediate” by Sonia Dahmani, noted AFP journalists.

According to her lawyers, Sonia Dahmani is the subject of an investigation in particular for disseminating “false information with the aim of harming public safety” and “inciting hate speech”, under Decree-Law 54 This decree, promulgated in September 2022 by President Kais Saied, punishes with up to five years in prison anyone who uses information and communication networks to. “write, produce, broadcast [ou] spreading false news (…) with the aim of violating the rights of others or harming public safety.”