A court in Tunisia has sentenced a 51-year-old man to death over Facebook posts deemed offensive to President Kais Saied and a threat to state security, his lawyer said Friday. The defendant, who has not been identified, was convicted on Wednesday of three charges: attempting to overthrow the state, insulting the president, and spreading false information online. Judges said the posts incited violence and chaos and violated Tunisia's penal code as well as its 2022 cybercrime law, Decree 54, the AP reports.
The ruling is the first of its kind in Tunisia, where dozens have been handed heavy prison sentences over similar charges since Saied seized power over all branches of government in July 2021. Although capital punishment remains in the penal code and civilian courts occasionally issue death sentences, none has been carried out since the execution of a serial killer in 1991. In a statement on Facebook, lawyer Oussama Bouthelja said that his client is a father of three, an occasional day laborer who suffers from a permanent disability caused by a workplace accident. Bouthelja described him as socially vulnerable and of a limited educational background, with little influence online.
"Most of the content he shared was copied from other pages, and some posts received no engagement at all," Bouthelja wrote. "In court, he said his intent was to draw authorities' attention to his difficult living conditions, not to incite unrest." The ruling is the latest to use Decree 54, which makes it illegal "to produce, spread, disseminate, send or write false news ... with the aim of infringing the rights of others, harming public safety or national defense or sowing terror among the population." Journalists and human rights groups have condemned the law as a tool used by authorities to curb freedom of expression in Tunisia.
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