Detained 81-year-old Swiss-Tunisian is finally sentenced and released

Mustapha Djemali representing his organisation, the Tunisian Refugee Council. Courtesy image

After more than a year and a half in prison in Tunisia, Mustapha Djemali was finally brought to trial and immediately released from prison. International organisations criticise how the Tunisian judiciary has handled those who help migrants.

The 81-year-old’s children said they were very relieved by the verdict. Their father had been in custody since May 2024. After only two days of trial hearings, he was released on Monday evening.

Djemali had been sentenced to two years in prison in the first instance, six months of which were suspended. This meant he was immediately released due to time already served in pre-trial detention. It is still unclear whether he or the Tunisian public prosecutor’s office will appeal the verdict.

Accusation of abetting illegal immigration

The former UN employee, together with other defendants, had been accused of having promoted the illegal settlement of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia. The proceedings were presumably initiated because Djemali’s NGO had published a tender for the rental of hotel rooms to accommodate migrants.

In 2017, Djemali founded the Tunisian Refugee Council (Conseil Tunisien pour les Réfugiés, CTR), a non-governmental organisation financed almost exclusively by his former employer, the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Since 2019, the NGO has been registering migrants who wanted to apply for asylum in Tunisia.

Djemali’s relatives had repeatedly criticised the prison conditions: Djemali had lost 40 kilograms in weight during his stay in prison. His prison cell was overcrowded, as well as oppressively hot in summer and bitterly cold in winter. They also felt that they were not supported enough by the Swiss authorities and the UNHCR.

Swiss passport was of little use

Djemali came to Geneva in 1980, where the lawyer worked for the UN until 2004. All his family members have Swiss citizenship. However, since they are also Tunisian nationals, the official options for action by the Swiss authorities in such cases are limited.

“We are very happy that justice was done today. The important humanitarian work of Mustapha Djemali for refugees in Tunisia has always been legitimate,” said Antonia Mulvey of the association Legal Action Worldwide, which had provided legal support to the families of the defendants.

A Tunisian project manager of the CTR, Aberrazak Krimi, had also been sentenced to two years. Four other employees of the NGO were acquitted. The decision also gives hope to other detainees and their families, Mulvey said.

In a press release, Amnesty International stated that the defendants should never have been arrested and that the trial should not have taken place in the first place. The verdict is a clear warning to other human rights organisations.

Aggressive crackdown on migrants

Since May 2024, at least six other members of civil society organisations working for the rights of migrants have been arrested in Tunisia. The case against the CTR was the first to receive a verdict.

Tunisian observers were surprised by the comparatively mild sentence. In the coming weeks, hearings and possible verdicts are also imminent in other cases.

For more than two years, the Tunisian government has been cracking down on migrants from sub-Saharan Africa after President Kais Saied warned against an organised attempt to change demographic composition of Tunisia.

According to official figures, there are only around 66,000 foreigners among the 12 million people in the country.

After signing a migration deal with the European Union in the summer of 2023, the number of arrivals from Tunisia to Europe has fallen sharply. At the same time, accusations persist that Tunisia is violating human rights in its treatment of migrants and refugees.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Adapted from German by DeepL/ac