Dozens of defendants pleaded guilty to “conspiracy against national security” and sentenced to 13-66 years in prison.
According to state media, dozens of opposition figures in Tunisia serve long sentences on national security charges.
Many of the North African country’s most senior opposition politicians were among the 40 people sentenced to prison on Saturday, including a former justice minister and a diplomat. Critics argue that the charges are rising and represent the authoritarian rule of President Kais Said.
The Tap State news agency cited an unnamed judicial officer and reported that the ruling ranged between 13 and 66 years.
Officials from the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office were cited by Yawara FM for stating that the defendant had committed “conspiracy against national security” and “part of a terrorist group.”
The exact details of the trial remain cloudy, with the exact number of trials and the specific fees they face unclear.
It was not immediately clear on Saturday whether all 40 defendants in the case known as “conspiracy cases” that ran for about two years were convicted, and whether they were given prison terms.
Approximately 20 people, many who fled Tunisia, were sentenced for absenteeism, including Bernard Henry Levy, a French intellectual who has been accused of being a conduit between the defendant and foreign officials.
“President Saeed has used the Tunisian judicial system as a weapon to chase political enemies and opponents, arbitrarily detained people on thin evidence and pursued them with abusive prosecutions,” Bassam Kawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera early in the month.
On Friday evening, the defense attorney condemned the trial after the judge had finished reading the charges and began deliberation without listening to either the prosecution or the defense.
“In my life, I have never witnessed a trial like this. It’s a farce, adjudication is ready and it’s scandalous and shameful to see what’s going on,” said lawyer Ahmed Soab.
Authorities have accused the accused of trying to destabilise the country and overthrowing Said, including former Intelligence reporting director Kamel Gizani and media figures.
Many defendants, including Issam Chebbi, Ghazi Chaouachi and Jawhar Ben Mubarak, have been in custody since being detained in 2023.
“The authorities want to criminalize the opposition,” Chebubi said Friday.
Said refuses to accused that he is a dictator. He said in 2023 that the accused politicians were “traitors and terrorists,” and that judges who acquit them would become co-accused.
Said integrated his power in 2021 by disbanding Congress and firing the then-Prime Minister.
Opposition leaders involved in the incident accused him of staging the “coup.”
They say that the accusations against them were manufactured to restrain the opposition and establish oppressive rules for one person.
Some of Tunisia’s most prominent opposition leaders are already in prisons.
Gannuchi, head of Ennahada, was arrested in April 2023 and sentenced to one year in prison for incitement.
Earlier this year, he was sentenced to an additional 22 years in prison for charges that included conspiracy against state security. He was also sentenced to three years on charges that his party had received foreign contributions.
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