Ex-President jailed in absentia for terrorism offences

A Tunis court has sentenced exiled former President Moncef Marzouki in absentia to 22 years in prison for offences related to ‘terrorism’, Tunisian media reported on Saturday. According to the New Arab, four other defendants, including his former adviser Imed Daimi and former head of the national Bar association Abderrazak Kilani, were also handed the same sentence late Friday. A staunch critic of President Kais Saied, Marzouki, who has been living in France, had already been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison in two separate cases, one involving ‘provoking disorder’. The latest ruling came after a press conference held in Paris, during which he, along with Daimi and Kilani, sharply criticised state institutions and members of the Tunisian judiciary, reports said. Marzouki, who served as Tunisia's third President from 2011 to 2014, said the ruling came as part of a ‘series of verdicts that have targeted some of Tunisia's finest men and continue to provoke the world's mockery’. Since a sweeping power grab by Saied in July 2021 when he dissolved Parliament and began ruling by decree, rights groups have warned of a sharp decline in Tunisian civil liberties. In April, a mass trial saw around 40 public figures, mainly critics of the authorities, sentenced to long terms on charges including plotting against the state. Other media figures and lawyers also critical of Saied have been prosecuted and detained under a law he enacted in 2022 to prohibit ‘spreading false news’. According to the Club of Mozambique, earlier on Friday, another court sentenced Sahbi Atig, a senior official in Ennahda, the country’s main opposition party, to 15 years in prison on charges of money laundering, his lawyer said. The 15-year sentence was shorter than some sentences handed down recently.