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A Tunisian appeals court ruled that a queer activist’s prosecution in a landmark LGBTQ case was “null”, NGO and judicial spokesmen said Tuesday.
Known as the “Student of Kairouan,” the verdict in the case concerned only Daniel, nicknamed the activist who attended the December 19 hearing, while the other five Tunisian defendants fled the country.
“It’s a win for Daniel and for us,” the Tunisian Justice and Equality Society (Damj) said in a message to AFP.
AFP spokesman Riadh Ben Halima of the Kairouan Court of Appeals said the charges were dropped because of procedural flaws “because the police opened Daniel’s computer without judicial authorization.” said.
About 30 activists for the LGBTQ cause gathered in front of a court in Kairouan on the day of the appeal, at the call of Damzi and the Tunisian Human Rights Federation (LTDH).
They called for “the shame clause to be removed”, referring to Article 230 of the Penal Code, which punishes homosexual acts with up to three years’ imprisonment.
The case dates back to 2015, when six students were arrested for “sodomy”, sentenced to three years in prison, and expelled from the Kairouan area for another three years.
The following year their sentence was commuted to 40 days’ detention on appeal, but in 2018 the Court of Cassation overturned the sentence and returned the case to appeal.
On December 19, Daniel told AFP that the hearings “went well”.
Article 230 dates back to 1913 during French colonial rule, but was enacted after independence in 1956.
The law also provides for anal examinations performed by forensic scientists, which has been denounced as “degrading and inhumane” by some NGOs calling for its abolition.
According to Damj, on December 19, the public prosecutor’s office requested that the results of the anal examination be excluded from the prosecution.
Since the 2011 revolution, LGBT+ activists have emerged from Tunisia’s shadows, but their condition remains precarious due to this repressive law and still-violent social rejection.
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