Prosecution of gay activist in Tunisia ruled ‘null and void’ – Morning Star Online
A TUNISIAN appeals court has ruled that the prosecution of a gay activist in a landmark LGBTQ case is “null and void,” an NGO and a judicial spokesman said on Tuesday.
The decision in the case known as “students of Kairouan” concerns only Daniel, the nickname of the activist present at the hearing of December 19, the other five Tunisian defendants having found asylum abroad.
“It is a victory for Daniel and for us,” said the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality (Damj).
The prosecution was reportedly dropped because of a procedural defect “because the police had opened the computer” of Daniel without judicial authorisation.
About 30 LGBTQ activists had gathered on the day of the appeal trial in front of the court of Kairouan, at the call of Damj and the Tunisian League of Human Rights.
They had called to “remove the article of shame,” referring to article 230 of the penal code which punishes homosexual acts with a penalty of up to three years in prison.
The case dated back to 2015 when six students were arrested on charges of “sodomy,” before being sentenced to three years in prison and banned from the Kairouan region for another three years.
The following year, their sentence was reduced on appeal to 40 days in detention, but in 2018 the Court of Cassation reversed this verdict and sent the case back to appeal.
Article 230 dates back to 1913, under French colonisation, but was retained in the legislation after independence in 1956.
“For the first time,” according to Damj, the prosecutor’s office requested on December 19 that the results of anal tests, required by the colonial-era law, should be excluded from the prosecution case.
Since the 2011 revolution, LGBTQ activists have come out of the shadows in Tunisia, but their condition remains precarious.