A legal briefing published on September 30 examines the prosecution of Ahmed Souab, a lawyer and former administrative judge who, after the final hearing in the “Conspiracy Case” in April 2025, publicly accused the Ministry of Justice of pressuring the trial judge. He was charged under the counter-terrorism law and other statutes and sentenced in October 2025 to five years; in February 2026 the Tunis Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but reduced the sentence to ten months plus a two-year suspended term, and he was released for time served. The ICJ concludes that the case punished him for his work as defense counsel and violated his rights to counsel, to be present at trial, to an independent tribunal, to liberty and to freedom of expression. It says eight other lawyers in the Conspiracy Case have also been prosecuted, and calls for Souab’s conviction to be quashed.

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