A Tunisian court has handed lawyer and media commentator Sonia Dahmani her fifth criminal conviction, sentencing her to two years in prison for remarks she made about conditions inside Tunisia's prisons. The ruling, issued on Monday by the Tunis court of first instance, follows a complaint filed by Tunisia's General Prison Administration over statements Dahmani made on radio in 2023, in which she criticised the state of the country's penal system. Her lawyer has announced an immediate appeal.

Dahmani is one of Tunisia's most prominent legal voices and a frequent television and radio commentator. She rose to international attention in May 2024 when she was arrested live on air during a broadcast on the French news channel France 24. She spent more than 18 months in pre-trial and post-conviction detention before being released at the end of November 2025. She currently remains on conditional release, meaning this latest sentence adds to an already precarious legal situation.

All five of Dahmani's convictions relate to statements made in the media. Her earlier sentences — ranging from one to two years each — were handed down for criticising racism in Tunisia, making ironic remarks about sub-Saharan migrants on television, and, most recently in April, for denouncing the existence of racially segregated cemeteries and buses in parts of the country. Each prosecution has been brought under Decree 54, a law on "false information" enacted by President Kaïs Saïed that allows authorities to pursue individuals for public statements deemed to spread harmful or inaccurate content.

Decree 54 has been repeatedly condemned by human rights organisations, journalists' groups, and legal advocates, who argue it has become a tool to silence dissent. Since its introduction, the law has been used to prosecute journalists, lawyers, and political opponents across Tunisia, a country on North Africa's Mediterranean coast that was once seen as the Arab Spring's democratic success story before a series of moves by President Saïed concentrated power in his hands.

Dahmani's case illustrates the mounting legal pressure on civil society voices in Tunisia. The cumulative weight of five convictions — each tied to media commentary rather than any act of violence or fraud — has drawn sharp criticism from rights defenders, who warn that the repeated use of the courts against a single outspoken lawyer sends a chilling message to all who might speak publicly about sensitive social or political issues in the country.