The Tunisian Court of Cassation on Thursday rejected the appeal in the "plot against state security" case, confirming the heavy sentences handed down on appeal, in November 2025, against around forty people, including opposition figures and lawyers.

Published on: 03/09/2026 - 22:13

In Tunisia, the Court of Cassation confirmed, Thursday, September 3, the heavy sentences confirmed on appeal in November 2025 against around forty people, including several Tunisian opposition figures, in the so-called "plot against state security" case.

“The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal, thus confirming the sentences handed down on appeal,” Me Haifa Chebbi, lawyer and daughter of Ahmed Néjib Chebbi, 82, one of the country's most famous left-wing opponents, told AFP. The convictions are now final, she added.

Sentences of up to 45 years in prison

“The legal battle is over. Now begins the purely political battle,” reacted on social networks the opponent Dalila Msaddek, sister of Jawhar Ben Mbarek, one of the convicted in this case which has become emblematic of the repression which has intensified in Tunisia since the coup by President Kaïs Saïed in July 2021.

In November 2025, the Tunis Court of Appeal confirmed the convictions handed down at first instance, with sentences of up to 45 years in prison.

Among those imprisoned in this case are notably the historic opponent Ahmed Néjib Chebbi, the lawyer Ayachi Hammami, the head of the Islamist party Ennahda Abdelhamid Jlassi, the former centrist minister Ghazi Chaouachi as well as the activist Chaïma Issa.

A “political affair”

The holding of the hearing on Thursday was strongly criticized, with several lawyers denouncing a date announced at the last moment and believing that it had not allowed them to properly prepare their defense in this case with heavy political stakes.

Haifa Chebbi denounced to the AFP a "political affair", used according to her by the government "to silence the opposition".

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Before the hearing, Amnesty International had urged the Tunisian authorities to overturn the convictions, which it considers "unfair", and to release the detainees.

The NGO criticized "a collective trial tainted by violations of the guarantees of due process" and denounced the living conditions of the prisoners, worsened according to it by "the recent successive heat waves".

With AFP

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