Long sentences in ‘political prosecutions’ upheld

Tunisia’s Cassation Court has upheld prison sentences of up to 45 years imposed on opposition leaders, lawyers and businessmen on charges of conspiracy, reports Middle East Online. The opposition said the ruling, which is the final stage of the three-year legal proceedings and cannot be appealed, reinforces President Kais Saied’s rule. Forty people were charged with conspiring to overthrow the President in one of Tunisia’s largest recent political prosecutions. Twenty fled abroad and were sentenced in absentia. ‘The ruling confirms that the judiciary is not independent,’ said lawyer Haifa Chebbi, daughter of prominent opposition figure and National Salvation Front leader Nejib Chebbi, who was sentenced to 12 years. Saied has said the judiciary remains independent. In 2023, when most of the defendants were arrested, he said the politicians were ‘traitors and terrorists’ and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices. Tunisia’s Justice Minister has said the defendants tried to destabilise the country and overthrow the President. Rights groups say Saied has controlled the judiciary since suspending Parliament and seizing extraordinary powers in 2021, ruling by decree, dissolving the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacking dozens of judges in 2022. Prominent opposition figures Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawhar Ben Mbarek and Ridha Belhaj were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while politician Noureddine Bhiri received 10 years.

Tunisian police have arrested prominent journalist Mohamed Yousfi, a vocal critic of President Kais Saied’s rule, the head of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists told Reuters. According to local journalists, police said that Yousfi, the editor-in-chief of the investigative news website Al-Qatiba, was taken in on Friday for questioning, reports Al Jazeera. The focus of the investigation is unknown. Tunisian authorities have not yet commented on the arrest, which is the latest in a string of prosecutions of media figures and activists in Tunisia this year. Khaoula Boukrim, founder of the news website Tumedia, who fled to France last year, was sentenced in June to four years in absentia. Prominent journalist Zied el-Heni was sentenced in May to one year in prison, while broadcaster Mourad Zeghidi and political commentator Borhen Bsaies were sentenced in January to three and a half years. Rights groups have warned of a widening crackdown on independent voices in Tunisia under Saied, whose rule has dismantled democratic safeguards, enabling authorities to pursue journalists and critics more aggressively.