Arbitrary extension of Sihem Ben Sedrine's detention

January 28, 2025
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On January 28, 2025, the examining magistrate of office 15 at the Economic and Financial Judicial Pole decided to extend Sihem Ben Sedrine's detention, a decision taken without informing her. Since her incarceration on August 1, 2024, this new measure, combined with her prolonged isolation, has only accentuated the suffering she has been enduring.

On January 28, 2025, the investigating judge of office 15 at the Economic and Financial Judicial Pole decided to extend Sihem Ben Sedrine's detention, a decision taken without informing her. Since her incarceration on August 1, 2024, this new measure, combined with her prolonged isolation, has only accentuated the suffering she is enduring.

Since yesterday, Sihem Ben Sedrine, former president of the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD), has been hospitalized in intensive care at La Rabta hospital, following a sudden deterioration in her state of health. She was rushed from her place of detention to Manouba prison on Sunday morning. To date, no visits have been authorized, further isolating Sihem Ben Sedrine in her ordeal.

Sihem Ben Sedrine has been on hunger strike since January 14, 2025 to denounce the conditions of her detention and the injustices she suffers. This prolonged strike has seriously contributed to the rapid deterioration of her health.

Doctors from the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), who consulted his medical records in prison, stressed that his current health conditions require increased vigilance and prompt treatment, given his fragility and the severe repercussions of his hunger strike. The deplorable conditions of detention, combined with his fragile health, have profoundly weakened his body. His admission to intensive care in a competent medical unit is a step forward, but does not dispel fears about the evolution of his critical condition.

Sihem Ben Sedrine was transferred to intensive care on January 25, 2025, and her condition remains critical. The prison administration forbids her husband and children to visit her, heightening concerns about the way she is being treated and her total isolation.

A historic figure in human rights and transitional justice in Tunisia, Sihem Ben Sedrine is today in an extremely vulnerable situation. Her alarming emaciation, the result of deprivation, pressure and her prolonged hunger strike, raises fears of a rapid and irreversible deterioration if she does not receive appropriate long-term care. This situation also highlights the physical and psychological consequences of an inhumane prison environment.

This situation is deeply alarming and calls for an urgent mobilization to ensure the protection of Sihem Ben Sedrine's fundamental rights, guarantee her dignified medical care and obtain her immediate and unconditional release.