Ayachi Hammami

Summary

Ayachi Hammami, a Tunisian lawyer and human rights defender, was included in what is known in the media as the "conspiracy case". On 18 April 2025 he was sentenced at first instance to eight years in prison, before the sentence was reduced on appeal to five years. On the evening of Tuesday 2 December 2025, he was arrested at his home.

Personal Information

Name: Ayachi Hammami

Nationality: Tunisian

Age: 66

Status: Lawyer, Tunisian human rights and political activist, coordinator of the defence committee for dismissed judges and president of the National Committee for the Defence of Freedoms and Democracy

Charge: Joining a terrorist organisation connected to terrorist offences

Incidents of Violation

Ayachi Hammami is a prominent lawyer and human rights defender who served in 2020 as Minister Delegate to the Tunisian Prime Minister in charge of human rights. He is also a member of the defence committee for political detainees. Since the start of the case known in the media as the "conspiracy against state security case" and the arrest of a number of politicians in that case, Ayachi Hammami's name was added to the list of defendants on 3 May 2023, after his name was found saved in the phone of one of the politicians accused in the case, without any direct communication between them.

Following this, he was summoned on 10 October 2023 by the investigating judge to be questioned and investigated in the said case. After appearing, however, he refused to give any answer, stating that questioning in the circumstances surrounding the case, given its political nature, was a futile and purely formal procedure. On the same day, the first investigating judge at the Judicial Counter-Terrorism Pole decided to keep him at liberty, while imposing a travel ban on him and prohibiting him from appearing or being present in public places.

On 18 April 2025, the verdicts in the conspiracy case were handed down in a trial lacking the foundations of a fair trial and in which the rights of the defence were violated. Ayachi Hammami was sentenced to eight years in prison and remained at liberty pending the appeal of the first-instance judgment. At the appeal hearing on 28 November 2025, the Criminal Chamber specialised in terrorism cases at the Tunis Court of Appeal issued final judgments in the case, under which Ayachi Hammami's prison sentence was reduced from eight to five years.

Five days after the judgment was issued, on the evening of Tuesday 2 December 2025, he was arrested at his home in execution of the final judgment against him and taken to prison. In a message published on his page, he stated that this trial was nothing but a cover for repressing the opposition, affirming that the case files contained no evidence warranting a conviction, and adding that his imprisonment would not deter him from his human rights mission and his defence of human rights and freedoms, and that he would continue his struggle from inside his cell.

Human Rights Violations

The violation suffered by Maître Ayachi Hammami constitutes targeting of him in his capacity as a lawyer, a human rights defender and a member of the defence committee for political detainees. It is a serious violation of the right to liberty and security of person enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and Article 28 of the Tunisian Constitution, which guarantees the right to liberty and security of person and prohibits arbitrary arrest.

Moreover, it constitutes a violation of the 1998 United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which guarantees everyone's right to defend and promote human rights without being subjected to reprisals or prosecution. This targeting also contravenes the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1990, which stress the need to protect lawyers from undue interference in the exercise of their functions.

This case, and through it the prosecution and arrest of Maître Ayachi Hammami, also constitutes a violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which provide that the right to have one's cause heard is guaranteed to all, including the right to appeal to competent national courts against any act violating fundamental rights recognised by conventions, laws, regulations and customs in force; that every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a competent court; that every person has the right to a defence, including the right to be defended by counsel of their choice; and the right to be tried within a reasonable time by an impartial court, as well as of Article 27 of the Tunisian Constitution. A five-year prison sentence without conclusive evidence of an actual crime contravenes this fundamental principle of criminal law.

This trial violates the right to a fair trial enshrined in Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which states that the right to have one's cause heard is guaranteed to all, including the right to appeal to competent national courts against any act violating fundamental rights recognised by conventions, laws, regulations and customs in force; that every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a competent court; that every person has the right to a defence, including the right to be defended by counsel of their choice; and the right to be tried within a reasonable time by an impartial court...

It also violates Article 124 of the Tunisian Constitution, as the trial was conducted in conditions lacking the basic guarantees of a fair trial, and the rights of the defence were systematically violated.

Furthermore, the travel ban imposed on him in the period before his sentencing and the ban on his appearing in public places constitute a violation of the right to freedom of movement guaranteed by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 30 of the Tunisian Constitution, which protects freedom of movement.

The use of the judiciary and counter-terrorism laws to prosecute political opponents and human rights defenders without tangible evidence of actual terrorist acts constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and Article 31 of the Tunisian Constitution, as well as of the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly enshrined in Article 20 of the Universal Declaration, Articles 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles 10 and 11 of the African Charter and Article 35 of the Tunisian Constitution.

Sources

Telephone call with the daughter of the victim of the violation on 02 December 2025

Review of the text of the appeal judgment

Message by lawyer Ayachi Hammami published on 02 December 2025