A Tunisian court on Monday freed a group of humanitarian workers after handing them suspended sentences for facilitating the “illegal entry and residence” of migrants, according to a support committee.
Sherifa Riahi, former director of the French NGO Terre d’Asile, and several of her staff had spent more than 20 months in jail before their final hearing. Hours after the ruling, Riahi’s support committee posted a video of her leaving prison, confirming that her colleagues had also been released.
Mahmoud Daoud Yaacoub, a member of Riahi’s defence team, told AFP that the defendants in pre-trial detention received two-year suspended sentences. “Tomorrow we will learn the rest of the judgment regarding the defendants who are out on bail,” he added.
The NGO workers were accused alongside 17 municipal employees from the eastern city of Sousse, who allegedly lent premises to the organisation. The 23 defendants faced charges including “conspiracy with the aim of housing or hiding people who entered clandestinely” and could have faced up to 10 years in prison. Other allegations, including financial misconduct, had previously been dropped.
The defendants’ lawyers argued they were carrying out humanitarian work under a state-approved programme in coordination with the government.
On the last day of the trial, a small crowd gathered outside the courthouse in support of the defendants. The final hearing lasted all day, with the court retiring overnight to consider the verdict.
UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor had called for Riahi’s release on Sunday, urging authorities not to pursue “dubious charges related to her defence of migrant rights.”
Migration remains a sensitive issue in Tunisia, a key transit point for tens of thousands of people seeking to reach Europe each year.
The defendants were arrested in May 2024, along with around a dozen other humanitarian workers, including anti-racism activist Saadia Mosbah, whose trial is scheduled to start later this month.
In February 2023, President Kais Saied described “hordes of illegal migrants,” mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, as posing a demographic threat. His comments triggered a wave of racially motivated attacks, with thousands of migrants forced from homes and jobs, some repatriated, others attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing, and at least a hundred dying at desert borders with Algeria and Libya.
The case comes as the European Union stepped up efforts to reduce arrivals on its southern shores, including a €255-million ($290 million) deal with Tunisia.
AFP
