For Sihem Bensedrine, a 74-year-old Tunisian rights activist, being in her cell at the Manouba women's prison became unbearable last week.

"I can't stand the injustice that's hitting me anymore," she posted on her Facebook pageon January 14.

"I am determined to pull myself out, at all costs, of this black hole that I was arbitrarily thrown into," she wrote.

She has been on hunger strike ever since.

Bensedrine has been in pre-trial detention since last August, on charges of fraud and "gaining unfair advantages," as well as accusations of forging part of an official report while she was head of Tunisia's Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD).

Her lawyer, human rights organizations and the United Nations have all called the accusations baseless.

"There is no justification for the detention," as Ayachi Hammami, a member of Bensedrine's defense team and a prominent human rights activist himself, told DW.

"It would be different if Bensedrine posed a threat to security, or if she could affect the evidence in the case," he said.

"I don't believe that Bensedrine's detention is in any way different from the vast majority of jailed political opponents that are prosecuted for opinions that are contrary to Tunisia's authorities," Hammami told DW.

According to the recently published Human Rights Watch World Report 2025, more than 80 individuals remained in detention on political grounds or for exercising their fundamental rights in Tunisia as of November.

Tunisia's human rights situation has been on a

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