Tunisian courts send up to 66 years of prison sentence in large-scale trial of regime opposition | Tunisia
The Tunisian court sentenced politicians, businessmen and lawyers to prison sentences between 13 and 66 years old to a large-scale trial, an opponent said it was fabricated and a symbol of President Kais Saied’s autocratic rule.
Businessman Kamel Ltaif was sentenced to a maximum 66-year prison sentence on Saturday, while opposition politician Khayam Turki was sentenced to 48 years in prison, the defendant’s lawyer said.
The court also sentenced prominent opposition figures including Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawahar Ben Mbarek and Ridha Belhaj to 18 years in prison. They have been in custody since 2023.
At the trial that began in March, 40 people were prosecuted. More than 20 have fled abroad since being accused.
Saied won his second five-year term in 2024, and after taking office in 2019, he won 90.7% of the votes with 90.7%. Rights groups said he has gained full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began the verdict. He dissolved the Independent Supreme Judicial Commission and fired dozens of judges in 2022.
“We are surprised by these injustice and revenge sentences that try to silence the voices of these opposition figures.”
“I have never seen a trial like this. It’s a farce, the ruling is ready, what’s going on is scandal and shameful,” defense attorney Ahmed Souab said Friday before the ruling was sentenced to it.
Authorities say the defendants also include former official and former intelligence chief Kamel Guizani, who attempted to undermine the country and overthrow Saied.
“The authorities want to criminalize the opposition,” said the leader of Nejib Chebbi, an opposition coalition of major national redemption fronts, on Friday. Chebbi is also one of the defendants.
Seid said that in 2023, politicians were “traitors and terrorists” and the judges whose innocent judges were their accomplices.
Opposition leaders involved in the case accused Saied of launching a coup in 2021 and said the case was intended to kill the opposition and establish a single, repressive rule.
They said they were preparing an initiative to unite the fragmented opposition in order to face democratic setbacks in the cradle of the Arab spring uprising.
Most of the leaders of Tunisian political parties are in prison, including Abir Moussi, the leader of the Liberal Constitution Party, and Rached Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda, Saied’s most prominent rival.
