The Solidarity Committee with Gannuch reduces “oppressive campaigns” against Ennafha Party leaders.
To celebrate the second anniversary of the arrest of Tunisian prominent opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, an international committee was formed last year to raise awareness about his incarceration, saying he was “unfairly” and “tensive crimes.”
The Solidarity Committee with Rached Ghannouchi called for the immediate release of the imprisoned leader Ennahdha and the former chairman of the Tunisian Parliament.
In a statement Thursday, it said that more than 15 cases have been brought against Gunnouti, with “some unjust beliefs and judgments” being issued.
The latest of these was a 22-year prison sentence issued in February in a charge that included a national security conspiracy. The committee said.
Earlier this year, Gannuch was also sentenced to three years on charges that his party had received foreign contributions.
The 83-year-old, a major rival to Tunisian President Kais Said, was arrested in April 2023 and sentenced to one year in prison for inciting charges.
He is a critic of Said’s voice and has become the best he can ever be arrested for the ongoing integration of power by the president who was elected in 2019 and overseen the wave of crackdowns and legal reforms that expanded his rules.
“These unfair trials and texts take place in the context of a broad, oppressive campaign led by the Kais Said administration, targeting opposition from all backgrounds, suppressing all forms of systematic action, dominating the media and civil society, silence critical voices, and silence critical voices,” the statement said.
Said’s government said “judicial justice must be used as a tool to resolve political scores.”
“The Age of Political Prisoners”
The committee’s statement comes just days after U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Tunisian government to halt its crackdown on opposition and release all detainees.
Rights groups said arbitrary detention was being used to rule out Tunisian dissent in the trial of prominent opposition figures (including Gannuch) on the alleged conspiracy charges.
In a report released Wednesday, HRW reinforced concerns from opposition leaders about what they call the authoritarian rules of the SAED since they dissolved Congress in 2021 and began ruling by statute.
The opposition described Said’s move as a coup. He denied such accusations and has publicly declared that he was trying to save the North African country from political turmoil and rampaging corruption rather than becoming a dictator.
The report said Tunis has transformed arbitrary detention into the basis of oppressive policies.
“The Sayed government has brought the country back to its political prisoner era and deprived Tunisians of the liberties of the hard-working civilians,” said Bassam Kawahaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director of HRW.
Since 2023, authorities have arrested dozens of prominent political opponents, as well as journalists, activists and lawyers, and critics say they undermined the democracy they acquired in the 2011 Arab Spring mass uprising.
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