Dozens of rebels have been targeted in the country, once seen as a harbinger of democracy, after sparking the Arab Spring.
Published December 12, 2025
A Tunisian court has sentenced prominent opposition leader Abil Moussi to 12 years in prison, amid a sweeping crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied, who has said he is ridding the North African country of “traitors”.
Nafar Laribi, a lawyer who represented Freedom Detourian Party leader Mousi in his third trial in the past two years, called Friday’s ruling “unjust” and “a politically motivated order, not a judicial decision.”
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In a statement released before the verdict, the Free Detourian Party condemned “the injustices suffered by the party’s president, Abil Mousi, who has been arbitrarily detained since October 3, 2023.”
Moussi has been the leader of the Free Detourian Party since 2016 and was a supporter of late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in 2011 in mass protests.
Her party has organized protests against President Said, who seized power in 2019 and shut down the elected parliament in 2021, moving to rule by statute.
He claimed his measures were an attempt to save the country from anarchy.
Opposition leaders were arrested by police at the entrance to the presidential palace and imprisoned in 2023 on suspicion of assault with intent to sow disorder, amid a widespread crackdown on journalists, activists, civil society organizations, and opposition leaders.
Moussi rejected the accusations, saying she was only exercising her right to criticism and legal opposition, and vowed to continue resisting what she called “abuse, torture, political and moral violence.”
Friday’s ruling was related to that case.
The politician was previously sentenced to two years in prison under Decree 54, a law enacted in 2022 by Saeed to combat “false news,” but the sentence was later reduced on appeal.
After completing his first sentence in June last year, Musi was sentenced again to two years in prison under the same law. The appeal process in this case is still ongoing.
Moussi’s critics say he wants to return to the authoritarianism of Ben Ali, who was overthrown when people rose up against his rule in revolutions that sparked the Arab Spring and ushered in a transition to democracy in the country.
However, Saied’s current government is also suspected of escalating the crackdown, and dozens of rebels were recently sentenced to harsh prison terms in a mass trial for conspiracy against national security. Critics claim the ordinance is being introduced to criminalize free speech, and some people have been prosecuted under Decree 54.
Rights groups and opponents say Mr Said has destroyed judicial independence since he shut down the elected parliament in 2021.
In 2022, it dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and replaced dozens of judges, a move that opposition groups and rights groups denounced as a coup.
Mr Said denies using the judiciary against his opponents.
