In Tunisian law the death penalty is issued for 21 separate offenses

In Tunisian law the death penalty is issued for 21 separate offenses, including murder, rape, attacks against the internal security of the State, or attacks against the external security of the State.
Although Tunisia was retentionist, then-President Ben Ali almost always granted clemency to condemned prisoners.
Ben Ali was due to retire in 2004 but in 2002 he secured support in a referendum for changes to the constitution allowing him a further two terms. The last execution was carried out in 1991.
On January 14, 2011, a series of street demonstrations and riots, started in December 2010, led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ending 23 years in power. Following Ben Ali's departure, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announces an interim national unity government. On 20 January 2011, the new government announced in its first sitting that all banned parties would be legalised and that all political prisoners would be freed.
On 1 February 2011, the transitional Tunisian government announced the ratification of the most important international conventions, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [on 24 June 2011, Tunisia formally deposited the ratified documents of the Statute of Rome with the Office of the Secretary General of the U.N.], and the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights regarding the abolition of the death penalty.
On 23 October 2011, the first elections after Ben Ali, those for the Constituent Assembly, have seen the victory of the Islamic party Ennahda (Renaissance), while the Congress for the Republic is finished second. On 12 December, the leader of the Congress for the Republic, Moncef Marzouki, a former human rights activist and opponent of Ben Ali’s regime, was elected President of the Republic by the Constituent Assembly. The new government, voted on 22 December, is chaired by Hamadi Jebali, Ennahda leader who has lived 16 years in prison, including 10 in solitary confinement, and was released with the amnesty, following President Ben Ali’s departure from Tunisia.
On 14 January 2012, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the revolution, all prisoners on death row (122 convicts) were granted a presidential amnesty, under which the death penalty was commuted to imprisonment. In total, about 9,000 inmates were granted amnesty or conditional release from prison. The amnesty was granted to 3,868 Tunisians and foreign prisoners, while the conditional release involved 4,976 inmates.
Execution orders must receive the signature of the President of the Republic before any action can be taken toward the implementation of the punishment. President Moncef Marzouki, a recognized human rights activist, has formerly pledged that he would never sign any execution order as Tunisia’s president.
On 9 April 2012, during a TV program on the first national channel, President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki was invited to speak about the death penalty and on whether to enact legislation abolishing it. The President replied that he was, and continues to be, a fervent defender of human rights, and also a supporter of the abolition of the death penalty. “Even though currently there are difficulties to pass text abolishing the death penalty, I will not sign any execution orders as long as I am President of the Republic.”
No death sentences were recorded in 2011, but in 2012, according to official figures quoted by Amnesty International, nine death sentences were imposed, all involving murders.
On 13 June 2012, Tunisia’s ousted former president Ben Ali escaped the death penalty when a military court convicted him in absentia for incitement to murder. He was instead sentenced to 20 years in prison in the killing of four protesters shot by police in the town of Ouardanine as they attempted to prevent his nephew Kais fleeing the Country. Later on 13 June, another military court, this time in Kef, sentenced him to life in prison for his role in the deadly repression during 2011 uprising. Tunisia’s president for 24 years had already been given four previous jail sentences on charges ranging from embezzlement of public funds to torture and drugs trafficking.
On 19 July 2012, a Tunisian military court sentenced again ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to life imprisonment in absentia over the killing of protesters in the capital Tunis and the towns of Sousse, Nabeul, Bizerte and Zaghouan during the revolution that launched the Arab Spring.
Ben Ali still faces numerous other charges related to the failed suppression of the uprising that overthrew him, during which 300 protesters were killed. He could still face the death penalty, although Ben Ali is unlikely to serve any time in jail, having been granted sanctuary in Saudi Arabia after fleeing the Country in January 2011.
On 19 September 2012, during the UPR by the UN Human Rights Council, Tunisia rejected recommendations to abolish the death penalty, referring to the ongoing debate in the National Constituent Assembly and the need for a dialogue in which the will of the people would be respected. The new draft Constitution proposed in August contained a provision protecting the right to life, but implicitly allowed for the death penalty through reference to other laws.
In 2007, in 2008 and in 2010 Tunisia was absent during the vote on a the Resolution on Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly. On December 20, 2012, Tunisia voted in favour of the Resolution.