Naceur Damergi was the man executed in Tunisia in November 1990 for the murders of 12 children and young people near the coastal town of Nabeul. His case sits at the end of Tunisia's use of capital punishment: Tunisian lawyers and press describe him as the last person put to death in the country, and the sentence was carried out only weeks after the court of last resort refused a defense request that had been made at both trial and appeal.
His name appears in several spellings. Amnesty International, which recorded the case at the time, wrote Nacer Damergi. Tunisian French-language outlets print Naceur Damergi, and one prints Nasser Damerji. Arabic reports give Nasser, or al-Nasser, al-Damergi.
Nabeul is a coastal governorate capital in the Cap Bon peninsula, about 60 kilometers south of Tunis. Amnesty International placed the murders there and dated them to the years 1987 to 1989. Individual dates and places are not on record, and accounts of which killing came first conflict.
What is consistent is the scale and the region. The Tunisian outlet Kapitalis described the crimes in 2022, in a review of a feature film inspired by the case, as a series of murders of at least 13 children in the late 1980s that frightened residents of Cap Bon and beyond. The Arab outlets Al-Ain and Raialjadid wrote in 2022 that the killings took place mainly in Nabeul, with Raialjadid adding that other governorates were involved. Webdo, quoting a lawyer in 2016, spoke of 13 minors. Babnet, in 2017, wrote of 14 children and also of a judge referring to a confession to 13. Amnesty International, writing within days of the execution, counted 12.
The figure of 12 was recorded at the time by a human rights organization that followed the proceedings. The higher figures appeared later, and none of them is tied to a verdict.
The victims were girls and boys. Amnesty International described them as 12 children and young people. Their names are not on record, and accounts of the first killing conflict.
Al-Ain and Raialjadid also say that one of the victims came from the family of a woman to whom Damergi had once been engaged. According to those reports he had gone to France in the 1960s, intending to earn money and return to marry, and found on his return that she had married someone else. Al-Ain dates his departure to 1964 and his return to 1968. No court finding on motive is on record.
The record of his early life is thin. The 2022 reports in Al-Ain and Raialjadid say he was raised by his mother, did not learn who his father was until he was about thirty, left school early and worked in farming, and later lived in France for a time. Al-Ain adds that he rented and worked fields. No official record confirms these details.
How the inquiry began and how Damergi was identified is not on record. Raialjadid and Al-Ain both say that police arrested him and that he confessed to the crimes. The arrest date, the place and the trial date are not on record.
According to Amnesty International's urgent action of November 20, 1990, Damergi was convicted of the murders and related offenses, with 12 children and young people named as the victims. His defense lawyer asked for a psychiatric examination before the trial court. The presiding judge refused. The judge sentenced him to death on May 24, 1990.
The name of the trial court is not on record. Al-Ain reports that local lawyers declined the case and that the court appointed counsel, and that psychologists found he had psychological disorders that did not remove his legal responsibility.
The defense lawyer repeated the request for a medical and psychiatric examination before the Court of Cassation. The court rejected it and upheld the death sentence in a ruling dated June 19, 1990, according to Amnesty International. No later appeal or clemency decision is on record.
The execution was politically significant because of what the head of state had said. Amnesty International wrote that in early 1988, in a conversation with its delegates, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had said he was personally opposed to the death penalty and would not sign a death warrant. Since taking office in November 1987 he had commuted several death sentences to life imprisonment. Amnesty's later urgent actions on another Tunisian prisoner described the execution of Damergi in November 1990 as the first the president had authorized since he came to power, and as a departure from that position.
Amnesty International deeply regretted the execution of Nacer Damergi on November 17, 1990, and noted that it was the first in Tunisia since Ben Ali took office. A further Amnesty paper in October 1991 refers to the man executed in November 1990 after being sentenced to death that May, and cites the case to show that the president's 1989 announcement of a suspension of the death penalty had not held in practice. The place of execution is not on record.
Later accounts depart from the contemporary record on the date. Kapitalis in 2019 quoted a lawyer, Nizar Ayed, saying the last execution in Tunisia dated to 1991 and that the man executed was the Nabeul murderer, with the newspaper naming him as Damergi. Al Jazeera in 2025 wrote that he was executed in 1991. Webdo in 2016 gave 1991 as well, naming him Nasser Damerji. Babnet in November 2017 gave November 17, 1991, which matches the day and month in the Amnesty record but not the year, and set it alongside a claim by a magazine that the last execution was in 1994. Al-Ain and Raialjadid in 2022 say he was sentenced in 1991, and put the execution in 1994 and 1993 respectively. Kapitalis, in a December 2022 piece on the same film, gave November 1990.
The record written within days of the events gives the sentence in May 1990, the cassation ruling in June 1990 and the execution on November 17, 1990. The later dates of 1991, 1993 and 1994 do not agree with one another.
Tunisian commentators treat the execution as the last carried out in the country. A lawyer cited by Kapitalis in 2019 describes it that way, and Al Jazeera in 2025 calls him the last person executed in Tunisia. The case is cited again when a serious killing revives the debate over capital punishment.
In December 2022 a Tunisian feature film inspired by the case, directed by Karim Ben Rahouma and starring Ahmed Landolsi, was released in Tunisian cinemas after a preview on December 16 and a general release from December 21. Kapitalis's review treated the childhood it depicts as the film's own portrayal. Al-Ain reported that the production used archive television recordings of Damergi.
On record: the death sentence of May 24, 1990, the Court of Cassation ruling of June 19, 1990, and the execution of November 17, 1990, for the murders of 12 children and young people committed around Nabeul in 1987 to 1989.
Not settled: the number of victims (12, 13 or 14 in different reports), the year of the execution in later press (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994), the first victim and the date of the first killing, the date and place of arrest, the name of the trial court, his date of birth, and the details of his early life.
1987 to 1989: the murders for which he was convicted take place around Nabeul (Amnesty International).
November 1987: Ben Ali takes office.
Early 1988: Ben Ali tells Amnesty International he opposes the death penalty and would not sign a death warrant.
May 24, 1990: sentenced to death by the presiding judge.
June 19, 1990: the Court of Cassation rejects the request for a psychiatric examination and upholds the sentence.
November 17, 1990: executed; the first execution in Tunisia since Ben Ali took power.
November 20, 1990: Amnesty International issues an urgent action on the case.
December 2022: a Tunisian feature film inspired by the case opens in cinemas.