Tunisian court docket arms jail sentences of as much as 66 years in mass trial of regime opponents | Tunisia

A Tunisian court docket has handed down jail sentences of 13 to 66 years to politicians, businessmen and attorneys in a mass trial that opponents say is fabricated and a logo of president Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule.

Businessman Kamel Ltaif acquired the longest sentence of 66 years on Saturday, whereas opposition politician Khayam Turki was given a 48-year jail time period, a lawyer for the defendants stated.

The court docket additionally sentenced outstanding opposition figures, together with Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawahar Ben Mbarek and Ridha Belhaj, to 18 years in jail. They’ve been in custody since 2023.

Forty folks have been being prosecuted within the trial that began in March. Greater than 20 have fled overseas since being charged.

Saied secured a second five-year time period in 2024 with 90.7% of the vote after coming to energy in 2019. Rights teams say he has had full management over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and started ruling by decree. He dissolved the impartial supreme judicial council and sacked dozens of judges in 2022.

“We’re not shocked by these unjust and vengeful verdicts that search to silence the voices of those opposition figures,” Chaouachi’s son Youssef stated

“I’ve by no means witnessed a trial like this. It’s a farce, the rulings are prepared, and what’s taking place is scandalous and shameful,” stated defence lawyer Ahmed Souab on Friday earlier than the ruling was handed down.

Authorities say the defendants, who additionally embrace former officers and the previous head of intelligence Kamel Guizani, tried to destabilise the nation and overthrow Saied.

“The authorities wish to criminalise the opposition,” stated the chief of the primary Nationwide Salvation Entrance opposition coalition, Nejib Chebbi, on Friday. Chebbi was additionally among the many defendants.

Saied stated in 2023 the politicians have been “traitors and terrorists” and that judges who would acquit them have been their accomplices.

The opposition leaders concerned within the case accuse Saied of staging a coup in 2021 and say the case is fabricated to stifle the opposition and set up a one-man, repressive rule.

They are saying they have been getting ready an initiative geared toward uniting the fragmented opposition to face the democratic setback within the cradle of the Arab spring uprisings.

A lot of the leaders of political events in Tunisia are in jail, together with Abir Moussi, the chief of the Free Constitutional get together, and Rached Ghannouchi, the pinnacle of Ennahda – two of Saied’s most outstanding opponents.