Tunisia opposition figures get jail terms in mass trial

by Kaouther Larbi

A Tunisian court has handed down jail sentences of up to 66 years to multiple defendants, including prominent opposition figures, in a mass trial criticised by rights groups.

The trial, decried by a defence lawyer as a "masquerade", is of unprecedented scale with around 40 defendants including vocal critics of President Kais Saied.

A prosecutor cited on Saturday by local media announced sentences ranging from 13 to 66 years for the defendants, accused of "conspiracy against state security" and "belonging to a terrorist group"

However, a list communicated to AFP by several lawyers, and "subject to official confirmation", indicates minimum sentences of four years.

Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people, with some already in prison for two years while others were in exile or still free.

Appeals are planned, defence lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi said.

Bassam Khawaja of Human Rights Watch posted on X: "The court did not give even a semblance of a fair trial." The charges, he said, "appear unfounded and based on no credible evidence".

According to the list supplied by lawyers, those accused who are abroad, and who include French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy, received 33-year jail terms.

The same penalty was handed down to feminist activist Bochra Belhaj Hmida and the former head of the presidential office, Nadia Akacha.

Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as lawyer Ridha Belhaj and activist Chaima Issa, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars, Messaoudi told AFP.

- Harshest penalty -

Activist Khayam Turki was handed a 48-year term while businessman Kamel Eltaief received the harshest penalty -- 66 years in prison, the list showed.

Turki's cousin, Hayder Turki, told AFP he was "very saddened" by the verdict, saying: "He doesn't deserve this -- he's a great man, his crime was being involved in politics."

Two former leaders of the Islamist Ennahdha party, which was Saied's main rival, were also sentenced. Abdelhamid Jelassi and Noureddine Bhiri received 13 and 43 years respectively, according to the list.

Kamel Jendoubi, a rights advocate and former minister tried in absentia, decried a "judicial assassination" by the courts.

"This is not a judiciary ruling, but a political decree executed by judges under orders, by complicit prosecutors and by a justice minister" who all serve "a paranoid autocrat", Jendoubi charged.

Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring began.

Late Friday, defence lawyers denounced the trial after the judge finished reading the accusations and began deliberation without hearing from either the prosecution or the defence.

One lawyer, Samia Abbou, told AFP there were "flagrant violations of judicial procedure" with the accused "not heard" during the "masquerade".

Friday's hearing lasted much of the day and was held amid tight security. Media and foreign diplomats were barred from the proceedings.

Since the trial began on March 4, defence lawyers have repeatedly called for all the defendants to appear in court, including at least six who went on a hunger strike.

The lawyers denounced the case as "empty", while HRW said the trial was taking place in the context of repression with Saied "weaponising the judicial system to target opponents and dissidents".

Analyst Hatem Nafti posted on X that any acquittal in the mass trial "would have negated the conspiratorial narrative that the regime has relied on since 2021" and "accepted by a large part of the population" relying on restricted media coverage.

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© Agence France-Presse