Criminal
A 1913 penal code with a 2016 custody reform and abolitionist trajectory
The Penal Code dates to 1913 with continuous amendment. Law 2016-5 introduced the right to counsel during police custody, and no execution has been carried out since 1991.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Cantonal courts, courts of first instance, appeal courts and the Court of Cassation, plus the specialised judicial pole for terrorism.
- Deadline — Garde à vue is 48 hours, renewable once by written decision; 15 days maximum in terrorism cases
- Deadline — Appeal against a criminal judgment lies within 10 days
Governing law
- Penal Code 1913, as amended
- Code of Criminal Procedure 1968
- Law 2016-5 amending garde à vue and right to counsel
- Law 2015-26 on terrorism and money laundering
- Decree-Law 2022-54 on cybercrime
In practice
Law 2016-5 is the significant modern reform because it cut police custody from six days to 48 hours and admitted counsel from the outset, addressing the mechanism that had produced most documented ill-treatment. Article 230 criminalising same-sex conduct and Article 226 on public indecency remain in force and are actively used, and anal examinations in such cases have been condemned by UN bodies. Decree-Law 2022-54 on cybercrime, enacted after the constitutional change, carries heavy penalties for spreading false information and has been applied to speech about officials, which is now the leading concern in Tunisian criminal practice. The 2015 terrorism law created a specialised judicial pole and extended custody, and it coexists uneasily with the 2016 reform.