The Tunisian government is attempting to disband one of the country’s few, and arguably its most prominent, LGBTQ rights groups, according to the group’s leader. Mounir Baatour, president of Association Shams, said the government filed this week an appeal seeking to overturn a 2016 court decision that permitted the association to continue operating in the North African country. “It’s very said news,” Baatour told NBC News on Friday. However, he added “Shams will not die.” He explained that Association Shams received initial approval to operate from the government in May 2015, and that approval was subsequently upheld by a 2016 court case that challenged the group’s legality according to Tunisia’s Law on Associations, which governs the creation of non-governmental organizations in the country.