Baatour was arrested in 2013 and jailed for 3 months. He claims that the charges were for
sodomy and he denied them denied. Other sources say he was imprisoned for sexual abuse of a minor. According to Afrik.com, the
Sheraton hotel is suspected of collaborating with the authorities and may have informed the police of the presence of Baatour with another man in one of their hotel room. In 2015, Baatour co-founded
Association Shams, an LGBT rights association focused on the decriminalisation of homosexuality. He is currently president of the association. In 2018, together with
Alice Nkom, Baatour received the Idaho France prize for freedom, for his fight against homophobia. On 8 August 2019, Baatour announced his participation to the
Tunisian presidential election. Following this announcement, an estimated 650 articles from 120 countries were written about him, and Baatour built a campaign team with 300 local activists. His political program included the repeal of Article 230, which outlaws homosexuality, from the Tunisian criminal code, as well as
gender equality and the protection of the rights of minorities. However, despite collecting nearly double the 10,000 signatures required for his nomination eligibility, the election authority rejected his candidacy, citing the sexual abuse case against him from 2013. After receiving death threats from Islamists, Baatour fled to France in January 2020, where he was accepted as a political refugee. Baatour lives in Marseille where he practices as a lawyer at the Marseille bar. On December 20, 2022, Baatour married in Marseille with the man he was arrested with in Tunisia ten years earlier. == Criticism by other LGBT activists ==