Fourteen years after the birth of the Arab Spring made Tunisia a beacon for democracy, the human rights lawyer Sonia Dahmani is witnessing her country’s slide back towards autocracy from a prison cell.
Her crime was committed on a television show in which she expressed surprise that so many migrants were travelling to Tunisia despite its struggling economy. “What extraordinary country are we talking about?” she asked.
That was enough to prompt a raid by the security forces on the Tunis bar association on Saturday to arrest her. She was charged under Decree 54, a “fake news” law the government uses to muzzle critics.
Sonia Dahmani was arrested after she expressed surprise that so many migrants were travelling to Tunisia despite its struggling economy
MOHAMED HAMMI/SIPA PRESS/REX
For her allies, the arrest marks a new phase in the clampdown by the increasingly autocratic President Saied on the two
