TUNIS (Reuters) – A Tunisian court sentenced a number of top politicians, former officials and journalists to long prison terms on Wednesday, defence lawyers said, the latest move in what critics say is an attempt to stamp out opposition to President Kais Saied.
Among those sentenced on charges of conspiring against state were Rached Ghannouchi, veteran head of the Islamist-leaning Ennahda party, who was handed a 22-year term, and former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, who received 35 years.
Ghannouchi, 83, has been in prison since 2023, receiving two sentences of a total of five years in separate cases.
Mechichi has been living abroad since 2021, a few months after Saied sacked him and shut the elected parliament, a step the opposition described as a coup.
“These are unjust and political rulings that aim to eliminate political opponents”, said Mokthar Jmai, one of the lawyers, adding that they would appeal against the sentences.
Ennahda called the trial a blatant violation of the independence of the judiciary, saying in a statement that it came in the context of further attacks on rights and freedoms.
A total of 41 people were charged in the case. Jmai said the court handed a 27-year sentence to journalist Chahrazad Akacha, who has fled abroad, and gave a five-year sentence to another journalist, Chadha Haj Mbarak, who was already jailed.
“My sister is innocent, and this sentence is harsh for a journalist who was just doing her job”, said Bassam Haj Mbarak, Chadha’s brother.
The court also sentenced Lazhar Longo, a former intelligence director and Mohamed Ali Aroui, a former interior ministry spokesman, to 15 years in prison each.
Most political party leaders in Tunisia have been jailed in what they say are fabricated cases.
They accuse Saied of tearing apart the democracy built after a 2011 revolution that toppled long-ruling autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, of seeking to impose one-man rule, and of filling prisons with politicians and journalists.
Saied denies conducting a coup and says his actions were needed to save Tunisia from years of chaos.
He has called his critics criminals, traitors and terrorists and warned that any judge who freed them would be considered to be abetting them.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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