Tunisia jails journalist Zied el-Heni for four more years on terrorism charges in the “audio leaks” case

CAIRO — A Tunisian court has sentenced the jailed broadcaster Zied el-Heni to four more years in prison on terrorism-related charges. The case grew out of his attempt to verify leaked audio recordings attributed to the opposition politician Mondher Lounissi. The criminal chamber for terrorism cases at the Tunis Court of First Instance handed down the sentences late on Tuesday, with immediate effect, a judicial source told the state news agency TAP, Nessma reported.

Lounissi, a former interim leader of the Ennahda movement, was sentenced to nine years in the same case. The court convicted the two men of failing to report information about a terrorist crime “even while bound by professional secrecy” and of contacting agents of a foreign state to harm Tunisia’s diplomatic standing, according to the TAP account. Defendants tried in absentia, among them the commentator Chahrazad Akacha, received 25-year sentences on conspiracy charges, Nessma said.

From witness to defendant

El-Heni was first questioned as a witness about recordings he had tried to verify for his radio programme, Émission Impossible. Investigators then asked about his sources and changed his status to defendant, the Committee to Protect Journalists said, citing the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT). According to the International Federation of Journalists, the charges rest in particular on his request to verify a piece of information and on his refusal to hand his mobile phone to the authorities without a warrant, which he did to protect his sources. His lawyer said it remained unclear what the recordings contained, Africanews reported.

The SNJT says el-Heni was refused an in-person appearance and that the verdict was issued without his lawyers being able to present their arguments. SNJT president Zied Dabbar called the case “fabricated from start to finish”, the IFJ reported. He also asked for the judgement to be reviewed and for the confidentiality of sources to be protected.

Condemnation

“Sentencing Zied el-Heni to four years in prison on terrorism charges for carrying out his journalistic work, and protecting his sources is an outrageous escalation in Tunisia’s assault on the press,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger said the ruling amounted to “misusing anti-terrorism legislation to suppress journalism”. CPJ said its email to the Tunisian authorities asking for comment had not been answered.

El-Heni, a vocal critic of President Kais Saied, is already serving a one-year sentence under Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code over a social media post, and faces a third case linked to his former seat on the Carthage municipal council, CPJ said. The group lists four other journalists in Tunisian prisons: Mohamed Yousfi, Mourad Zghidi, Borhen Bsaies and Hajer Awadi. Many Ennahda members have been jailed or have left the country since Saied’s 2021 seizure of sweeping powers, Africanews noted.

AB24’s reading from Cairo: this is the third case on this desk in a week in which reporting itself has become the alleged offence. The others are the court-ordered closure of Egypt’s Mada Masr and the unexplained detention of Moussa Kaka in Niger. Prosecuting a journalist under terrorism law for checking a leak and protecting a source turns source confidentiality, which the profession treats as a basic protection, into evidence against him. An appeal is the next step to watch.

Sources: CPJ, 28 Oct 2026; IFJ, Oct 2026; Nessma/TAP, 28 Oct 2026; Africanews, 29 Oct 2026.

— AB24 · Cairo