Tunisian human rights activist and the former head of the Truth and Dignity Commission, Sihem Bensedrine, has started a hunger strike in prison in protest against what she believes to be the injustice she has experienced as a result of the cases brought against her.
The move comes months after she was arrested in August 2024 in Manouba prison, west of the capital Tunis, as part of a series of investigations into her role as head of the commission tasked with looking into violations prior to the 2011 revolution.
As the president of the Truth and Dignity Commission, an independent body created in 2014 with the goal of looking into human rights abuses against the Tunisian people during the former regime’s rule from 1955 to 2013, Sihem Bensedrine became one of the most well-known human rights figures in Tunisia following the revolution.
Following the commission’s 2020 term, Ben Sedrine was accused of fabricating portions of the commission’s final report, particularly the section about the Tunisian state’s conflict with the Tunisian-French Bank. This case became a central theme of her trial.
The court’s August 2024 decision to imprison her was based on these charges, despite human rights criticism that the cases were political in nature, intended to undermine Ben Sedrine’s power, and threatened her freedom because she opposed the current President Kais Saied’s regime.
In a post on her Facebook page, Ben Sedrine announced the beginning of her hunger strike, saying, “I have decided to leave this hole in which I have been unjustly buried, no matter what it costs me.” She said she could no longer stand the injustice she had endured over the previous period.
The case of Bensedrine is part of the growing number of human rights abuses in Tunisia under the current government, as the nation is seeing an increase in restrictions on the rights of opponents, particularly those whose positions undermine President Kais Saied’s authority, and on freedom of expression.
