Sihem Bensedrine

Sihem Bensedrine, a human rights defender and former president of the Truth and Dignity Commission, aged 76, has since 2021 faced an escalating series of judicial proceedings relating to charges of corruption and falsification of the Commission’s final report.
Since March 2021, she has been summoned six times to be heard as a witness. On 20 February 2023, six investigation files were opened against her on charges of corruption and falsification of the final report, based on a complaint by a former member of the Commission who had herself been the subject of disciplinary proceedings. The charges concern a paragraph allegedly added to the report regarding the Banque Franco-Tunisienne case, although the defence team demonstrated that this paragraph had been presented publicly and approved in sessions documented in official minutes. On 2 March 2023, a travel ban was imposed on her. She was subjected to questioning lasting more than 40 hours over 4 days (5–8 February 2024). On 28 February 2024, the Indictment Chamber upheld the decision to leave her at liberty, but the judge who issued this decision was subsequently transferred outside the annual judicial reshuffle. On 4 March 2024, she was placed under house arrest, and the judge who took this decision was later promoted to head two judicial poles. On 1 August 2024, she was heard by an investigating judge who did not have jurisdiction over the case in question (in breach of the principle of the natural judge), and at the end of the hearing a committal warrant was issued against her and she was committed to Manouba Women’s Prison.
On 14 January 2025, she went on hunger strike in protest against her unjustified imprisonment, the delays in the investigation and the rejection of her request for release. Her health deteriorated, and on the evening of 25 January 2025 she was transferred to the intensive care unit of La Rabta Hospital, where she spent 8 days; she stated that she was subjected to degrading treatment, including having her legs shackled while receiving treatment, and described this as “the security apparatus taking over the health facility”. Her family was able to visit her only after 5 days of isolation imposed on her at the hospital. She suspended her strike on 30 January 2025. She was released on 19 February 2025, subject to a travel ban.