The Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia (CRLDHT) strongly denounces and unreservedly condemns the August 31, 2026, ruling against Seif Eddine Arfaoui, an activist with the Nafas movement , who was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Criminal Division of the Tunis Court of First Instance.
This sentence is scandalous, profoundly unjust, and disproportionately harsh.
On August 20 in Tunis, Seif Eddine Arfaoui participated in a peaceful demonstration organized by Nafas to denounce the ongoing erosion of rights and freedoms, the intensifying repression, and the failures of a regime that is increasingly unable to address the hardships faced by Tunisians. He was arrested the very next day and prosecuted, in part, for posts on social media that reproduced slogans chanted during the demonstration.
On August 31, the “court” sentenced him to 18 months in prison under Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code for what was described as “harming others through public telecommunications networks.”
We refuse to allow arbitrariness to become the norm and imprisonment to become the standard response to political dissent.
A young activist has been sent to prison for protesting, shouting slogans, and sharing a political message on Facebook. This ruling does not punish an act of violence. It does not punish an attack on a person’s physical integrity. It punishes a political statement.
For several years now, there has been a rise in legal proceedings against journalists, lawyers, political and civic activists, union members, human rights defenders, and ordinary citizens.
Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code, Decree-Law 54, and other repressive provisions are being used to bring political dissent under criminal law.
Today, it’s Seif Eddine Arfaoui. Yesterday, others were convicted or imprisoned. Tomorrow, if this cycle isn’t stopped, any Tunisian citizen who expresses his anger in a public square or on social media could, in turn, become a defendant and then a prisoner.
The CRLDHT strongly asserts that criticizing the head of state and those in power is a right. Political slogans—even those that are harsh, provocative, or offensive—are part of the public discourse. A government that accepts only the words it likes does not defend freedom of expression: it demands silence and obedience.
We refuse to remain silent. We refuse to let fear become a means of governing.
We refuse to allow the courts to be used to resolve the political problem posed by the protests.
Above all, we refuse to get used to seeing Tunisians sentenced to months or years in prison simply for speaking out.
Enough.
The CRLDHT demands the immediate release of Seif Eddine Arfaoui and the overturning of this unjust conviction.
It calls for an end to the prosecution of all individuals who are being prosecuted or detained for the peaceful exercise of their freedoms of opinion, expression, and assembly.
He calls on human rights organizations, associations, labor unions, lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, democratic forces, and all citizens who value their freedom to collectively reject this policy of fear and intimidation.
In the face of the normalization of repression, solidarity must turn into action. We must defend Seif Eddine Arfaoui today because, beyond his individual case, it is our collective right to say “no” that has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison.
We will not remain silent.
We will never consider it normal for a citizen to be imprisoned for a slogan.
We will not resign ourselves to seeing Tunisia become a country where speaking out leads to prison and where silence becomes the price of freedom.
Freedom of expression is not a crime.
Protesting is not a crime.
Shouting a slogan is not a crime.
Criticizing those in power is not a crime.
Immediate freedom for Seif Eddine Arfaoui.
Freedom for all those imprisoned for their opinions.
Freedom for Tunisia.
Committee for the Respect of Human Rights and Freedoms in Tunisia – CRLDHT
September 1, 2026
