TUNISIA: WOMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER FACING BOGUS CHARGES

Your Excellency,

I urge you to ensure that all the charges brought against woman human rights defender Saloua Ghrissa and her colleagues are dropped. Saloua Ghrissa is the executive director of the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference (ADD) – a Tunisian association founded in 2011 to defend minority rights.

Saloua Ghrissa, along with four other staff and three members of the ADD, is facing a criminal trial before the Bizerte Court of First Instance on unfounded financial and other charges. These charges infringe on their rights to freedom of expression and association, as well as their right to defend human rights. The next hearing in their case is scheduled for April 30, 2026.

I welcome Saloua Ghrissa’s release from prison after more than 15 months of arbitrary pretrial detention. However, she continues to be prosecuted alongside other ADD staff and members on charges of money laundering and violations of currency exchange regulations. These charges are unsubstantiated and rest on vague allegations of so-called “suspicious” foreign funding.

I again urge you to ensure that all charges against Saloua Ghrissa and the seven other ADD staff and members are immediately dropped. I also call on you to put an end to the arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of human rights defenders and civil society workers in Tunisia.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]