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Tunisia News

Tunisia · Europe · Geopolitics: the daily brief
Background

Prisons and detention

Eight Tunisian prisons give a detainee no more than 2 square metres, the state is answering the overcrowding with new buildings and pardons, and the Tunisian League for Human Rights, which published that figure, says it is no longer let in. Over July and August 2026 rights groups counted deaths in the prisons during a heatwave, and no official figure exists.

In May 2025 Tunisia's prisons held about 33,000 people in 17,000 official places, on World Prison Brief figures. Chadi Trifi of the Tunisian League for Human Rights puts the number above 60,000, and says the justice ministry has barred the League's prison visits.
Prisons and detention

A Tunisian League for Human Rights report on conditions between 2022 and 2025, built on prison visits, found occupancy generally above 150 percent, and 1,522 detainees for 850 places at Mahdia civil prison. Kapitalis, which carries those figures, says some prisons are above 200 percent. In eight prisons the space per detainee is no more than 2 square metres, against an international minimum of 4, according to a League report published in 2025 and cited by Nawaat.

Kapitalis says the prison population rose by about 10,000 in two years, from roughly 23,000 in 2022 to 33,000, and gives the World Prison Brief's rate of 267 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. Chadi Trifi of the League put the number above 60,000 in August 2026, nearly twice that. Neither he nor the brief says why the two counts differ. The last time the brief counted people awaiting trial, more than half of those held had not been sentenced: 12,881 in 2021, 54.9 percent, and it gives no later share.

The justice ministry's 2026 investment programme provides for a new prison at Béja, a women's complex at Monastir, an extension of Borj Erroumi, a hospital unit at La Rabta and 446 prison corporals. Kapitalis says the same projects include wider use of alternative sentences and electronic tags. The largest of the year's three pardon decrees came on 23 July 2026, 2,439 prisoners pardoned for Republic Day and 490 conditional releases, 2,929 people on Webdo's count. Webdo describes the pardon as freeing convicted prisoners.

Nawaat reported on 5 August 2026 that three families blamed prison conditions for the deaths of relatives within days, two at Gabès civil prison and one at Borj El Amri. In the cells, Nawaat wrote, the heat was nearing 50 degrees. One family puts its relative's death on 23 July, and the League's Ben Arous section called the deaths suspicious on 28 July, after hearing the families. Hamza Dridi, one of the dead, was 33 and had been held a year and eight months on a cannabis case without trial.

On 21 July 2026 the League's Sousse section said one of its delegations had been stopped at Messadine civil prison, the prison administration requiring authorisation from the justice ministry. The League calls that requirement a breach of the memorandum of understanding governing its visits, and Nawaat writes that Messadine follows months of restrictions the League has denounced. On 28 July the prisons authority denied in a communiqué that detainees' relatives and lawyers were being refused visits.

Over July and August 2026, in a heatwave that reached 50 degrees in some regions, rights organisations counted deaths in the prisons and nobody established how many. The Tunisian League for Human Rights counted more than 20 linked to the rising temperatures. Ghaylen Jlassi of Intersection put the approximate number of suspicious deaths at close to 30, most of them at Mornaguia and the rest in Monastir, Gabès and Sfax. An investigating judge at the Tunis court of first instance is handling 16 case files. The health ministry reported 633 consultations and care episodes linked to the heatwave between 1 July and 29 August, said health services were not interrupted, and published no overall death figure; the prisons directorate and the justice ministry did not respond at all. Where causes were given to families, the League's Gafsa section says they were cardiac arrest or natural death. The overcrowding this page measures in square metres is the same fact read another way: the League's president, Bassem Trifi, says some establishments run at 300 per cent occupancy, and the Gafsa section puts that prison at about 700 detainees for a capacity under 400.

”We know these arrangements exist. But how far do they work against the heatwave? We do not know, since the justice ministry barred us from visiting prisons”
Chadi TrifiMember of the executive bureau of the Tunisian League for Human Rights

The numbers

How full the prisons were as at May 2025
194.1%
Occupancy at 194.1 percent of official capacity as at May 2025, per the World Prison Brief.
World Prison Brief
People held as at May 2025, against 17,000 official places
33,000
33,000 people as at May 2025 in a system of 17,000 official places. The World Prison Brief credits the total to the National Authority for the Prevention of Torture.
World Prison Brief
Held without a conviction, on the World Prison Brief's 2021 count
54.9%
12,881 pre-trial detainees in 2021, 54.9 percent of the prison population. The World Prison Brief gives no later share.
World Prison Brief
Released in July 2026 for the anniversary of the Republic
2,929
2,439 detainees pardoned on 23 July 2026 and 490 conditional releases ordered, 2,929 people in all on Webdo's count.
Webdo
One prison in the League's report
Mahdia civil prison, 1,522 detainees for 850 places, in a Tunisian League for Human Rights report on conditions between 2022 and 2025 based on prison visits, as reported by Kapitalis.
Kapitalis
Floor space per person in eight prisons
No more than 2 square metres per detainee in eight prisons, against an international minimum of 4, in a League report published in 2025 and cited by Nawaat.
Nawaat
Prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, May 2025
267 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants as at May 2025, calculated by the World Prison Brief on an estimated national population of 12.34 million taken from United Nations figures.
World Prison Brief
The prison authority's own figures, and its warning to critics
20,773 consultations
The General Directorate of Prisons and Re-education said on 22 August 2026 that detainees had 19,537 daytime and 1,236 night-time consultations in public hospitals, 20,773 in the first half of 2026. Its spokesperson Hatem Akroute said medical decisions follow the diagnosis of qualified health professionals and not administrative or penal considerations. The directorate warned it could bring court proceedings against anyone deliberately spreading information it considers false or liable to damage the institution's reputation or create confusion.
Webdo
A death at Gafsa, and the League asking to be let back in
one death
A detainee at Gafsa civil prison died after a cardiac arrest, reported by the Tunisian League for Human Rights' regional section in Gafsa. The League cites overcrowding, difficulty accessing care and deteriorating conditions, made worse by intense heat, and asked the justice ministry to allow independent monitoring visits to prisons to resume.
Réalités
Prison deaths over July and August 2026
No official figure exists. The Tunisian League for Human Rights counted more than 20 linked to the heat; Ghaylen Jlassi of Intersection put suspicious deaths at close to 30. An investigating judge has 16 case files. The health ministry reported 633 heatwave consultations between 1 July and 29 August and published no death figure; the prisons directorate and justice ministry did not respond
Inkyfada

What the comparison shows

Where they agree

All three voices accept that the prisons hold more people than they have places for. The count of 33,000 against 17,000 official places comes from the torture prevention body itself. The prisons authority is adding beds, and the League calls July's 2,929 releases a drop in the ocean.

Where they split

The prisons authority's answer is capacity: 1,000 beds and telephone booths, announced in August 2025. The torture prevention body traces part of the crowding to what happens before the prison gate, to slow procedures and heavy recourse to detention, which no new building reaches. Who gets out depends on which answer wins. July's pardon freed convicted prisoners, on Webdo's account, while the World Prison Brief last counted more than half the prison population as awaiting trial.

What nobody is saying

The World Prison Brief's 54.9 percent is a 2021 reading, while the total of 33,000 beside it is from May 2025, and it gives no later share. That is the share the pardons cannot reach, because a pardon frees people who have been sentenced. Kapitalis writes that without new comprehensive statistics, the effect of the 2026 measures on real overcrowding cannot yet be measured.

Who says what

Fethi Jarray, President of Tunisia's national authority for the prevention of torture

The 33,000 total the World Prison Brief publishes comes from Jarray's body. His explanation of the rise, as Kapitalis reports it, is not about buildings but about the courts.

”cette augmentation est également liée à la lenteur des procédures judiciaires et au recours massif à la détention”this increase is also linked to the slowness of judicial procedures and to the massive recourse to detention
Source: Kapitalis · Monday, 3 August 2026
Chadi Trifi, Member of the executive bureau of the Tunisian League for Human Rights

The prisons authority says that against the heatwave it maintains its generators and keeps emergency water tankers for any break in supply. Trifi does not dispute that those arrangements exist; he says the League has no way to see whether they work, so it is questioning families instead and demanding an urgent, independent and transparent inquiry into the deaths. He puts the prison population above 60,000 and calls July's 2,929 releases a drop in the ocean.

”On sait que ces dispositions existent. Mais à quel point fonctionnent-elles face à la canicule ? Nous l’ignorons, depuis que le ministère de la Justice nous a interdit la visite des établissements pénitentiaires”We know these arrangements exist. But how far do they work against the heatwave? We do not know, since the justice ministry barred us from visiting prisons
Source: Nawaat · Wednesday, 5 August 2026
Kemleddine Ben Hassen, Spokesman for the prisons authority

In August 2025 Ben Hassen announced on Jawhara FM 1,000 extra beds and telephone booths for supervised calls home, after reports, Webdo says, of detainees sleeping on the floor or in the toilets for lack of space. That was a year before this summer's deaths and the dispute over access, and it answers neither: the remedy on offer is places to be added rather than admissions to be reduced.

Source: Webdo · Monday, 3 August 2026

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