On 4 March 2025, the trial of 40 individuals, including political opposition figures, lawyers and human rights defenders facing bogus “conspiracy” charges, started. Six of the defendants have now spent over two years in arbitrary pre-trial detention. Politicians Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, Khayyam Turki, Issam Chebbi, Ghazi Chaouachi, Ridha Belhaj and Abdelhamid Jelassi have been arbitrarily detained since February 2023 in this case. Tunisia’s anti-terrorism court has been investigating all of them for trying to “change the nature of the state” under Article 72 of the Penal Code which carries the death penalty. Following the first trial hearing, the judge decided to adjourn it to 11 April without responding to the defence requests, which included the provisional release of detainees as well as their presence in court which was held through remote court proceedings. We call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release those detained as they are held for peacefully exercising of their human rights. Authorities must drop all the charges against them.
