TUNIS, July 1, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Tunisian court on Monday sentenced lawyer and commentator Sonia Dahmani to two extra years in prison over statements she made criticising racism against migrants, her legal representative said.

Dahmani, 60, was already serving a two-year sentence after being arrested by masked men at Tunisia's bar association in May last year.

"The court sentenced Sonia Dahmani to two years in prison," her legal representative Sami Ben Ghazi told AFP.

Dahmani is a critic of President Kais Saied and received the latest sentence over a radio broadcast in which she criticised the existence of cemeteries and buses reserved for black people in certain parts of the country.

She is facing a string of charges in separate cases brought under legislation introduced by Saied in 2022 to combat "false information and rumours".

Human rights group say the law is being interpreted too broadly.

She is currently serving two prison sentences totalling 26 months for breaking the legislation.

One of the sentences was imposed after she mocked claims that sub-Saharan migrants were settling permanently in Tunisia despite a severe economic crisis.

In February 2023, Saied had previously denounced the arrival of "hordes of illegal sub-Saharan migrants" and a "plot" to "change the demographic make-up" of Tunisia, which triggered a violent anti-immigrant campaign.

Saied, elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab.

Since then dozens of opponents, lawyers, journalists and activists helping migrants have been imprisoned under Decree 54, which he enacted to criminalise the spread of "false news", anti-terrorism legislations or "plotting against the state".