A Tunisian court on Wednesday handed a lengthy new prison term to Rached Ghannouchi, the jailed head of the country’s leading opposition party and once the main rival of President Kais Saied.
Ghannouchi, who has been behind bars since April 2023, was sentenced to an additional 22 years in prison on a slew of charges, including “plotting against state security”, lawyers told AFP.
It is the heaviest sentence handed down to the opposition leader, who was already imprisoned on charges of receiving illegal foreign funding and “terrorism”.
The court also issued sentences for several other figures from his Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha – including members of his family – as well as journalists working for a digital content production firm called Instalingo.
The firm has been under scrutiny since Saied orchestrated a power grab in 2021.
Seventeen of the dozens involved in the case are already jailed, and the sentences on Wednesday ranged between five and 37 years, lawyers said.
The charges included “plotting against state security” and “joining a gang that works to change the form of the state and commit hostilities against the president”, according to several lawyers.
Among the defendants were Ghannouchi’s son Mouadh, his daughter Soumaya and his son-in-law Rafik Abdessalem, who served as Tunisia’s foreign affairs minister from 2011 to 2013.
They were sentenced to 35, 25 and 34 years in prison, respectively.
Former prime minister Hichem Mechichi was also sentenced to 35 years in prison and journalist Chahrazed Akacha to 27 years, both in absentia.
‘A political case’
Said Ferjani, a former parliamentarian and a high-ranking Ennahdha official, was handed 13 years in prison.
His daughter, Kaouther Ferjani, told AFP from the United Kingdom that his sentencing came as “a shock”, even though she “expected a hefty sentence”.
“It’s a political case,” she said over the phone. “There was absolutely no evidence, not even fabricated evidence… The verdicts were decided in advance.”
Ghannouchi, whose party dominated Tunisian politics for a decade following the 2011 revolt that toppled the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is a staunch critic of Saied.
He has refused to appear before judges in protest over “the absence of an independent judiciary”, said Zeineb Brahmi, one of the defendants’ lawyers.
In a statement, Ennahdha said the Instalingo case has been “unjust and political” and came as part of “an assault on the most basic rights and freedoms, and on the most basic foundations of the rule of law and freedoms”.
