(Beirut) – Five employees of the Tunisian Council for Refugees will stand trial on May 13, 2026, after appealing criminal sentences for their work assisting asylum seekers and refugees, Human Rights Watch said today. The Tunisian authorities should end the abusive prosecution of the employees, compensate them for their unlawful detention, and stop the widespread crackdown on civil society groups.  Tunisian authorities shut down the Tunisian Council for Refugees in May 2024,  arrested its founder and director, Mustapha Djemali, and program manager, Abderrazek Krimi, and  prosecuted them alongside four other employees. On November 24, 2025, a Tunis Court of First Instance  sentenced Djemali and Krimi to two years in prison, suspending six months and releasing them the same day for time served. It acquitted three other defendants, while the fourth is in a separate judicial proceeding. Djemali and Krimi both appealed the decision, as did the prosecution.…