Hundreds of Tunisians protested on Saturday to demand the release of jailed pro-Palestinian activists accused of money laundering when they helped organise a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla.
The four activists were arrested in March accused of misusing funds raised for the Global Sumud Flotilla, which sailed to Gaza in 2025 with the aim of delivering aid to the Palestinian territory.
In a statement on Saturday, the group said the detained activists’ health was “deteriorating fast” after they began a hunger strike to protest their imprisonment.
“Today, there are attempts to reduce the issue to a simple matter of the mismanagement .
“This is a politically motivated case, and we consider them to be prisoners of conscience and political prisoners,” said Bassem Trifi, head of the Tunisian League for Human Rights . “The movement in support of Palestinian rights brought together a huge number of people and generated significant popular support,” Trifi added. Ghassen Bouazi, an advocate for the activists’ release, said their arrest was “part of a broader campaign targeting political figures, rights advocates and journalists”.
