Tunisia president pardons prisoners detained over social media posts

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has approved an order pardoning over 1,700 people in the country detained over social media posts critical of the government, in a move that comes months ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

According to a statement from the Tunisian presidency issues yesterday, Saied’s signing of the special presidential pardon resulted in the release of around 233 out of 1,727 detainees, while the rest had their sentences reduced.

Only those “sentenced not on the basis of the posts that were published but on the basis of other crimes” were excluded from the pardon, the Tunisian presidency said. It added that the order was issued based on Article 99 of the constitution, which stipulates dropping the punishment of those detained for crimes related to social media.

The presidential pardon also coincided with the 67th anniversary of Tunisia’s independence, as well as coming only months ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in the country scheduled to take place on 6 October.

The government under Saied – who is running as a candidate for another term – has long been marked with authoritarian tendencies, with crackdowns on dissent being a key component of that. Back in September 2022, the president issued Decree Law 54, which claims to combat cybercrime but often penalises those sharing social media posts critical of his government.

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