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A Tunisian court handed long jail terms ranging from 10 years to life to opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi and several other officials of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party on Tuesday.
The 84-year-old party chief and his colleagues were accused of establishing a “secret security apparatus” to serve the political group, which originally won the country’s post-revolution elections in 2011.
Under the new rulings, Ghannouchi received a 30-year sentence plus life imprisonment, while retired military officer Kamel ben Bedoui received a life sentence along with 32 years in prison.
The court also sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh to 42 years in prison.
Authorities have detained Laarayedh since 2022, previously convicting him in a separate case for allegedly helping send jihadist fighters to Iraq and Syria.
Ghannouchi, who served as the speaker of parliament before President Kais Saied’s 2021 power grab, has also faced prior convictions totalling over 40 years for offences like “conspiracy against state security.”
While Tunisia originally emerged as the Arab world’s sole democracy following the 2011 ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, local and international NGOs warn that rights and freedoms have steadily regressed since Saied took power in 2019.
Critics heavily denounce the latest rulings against the opposition figures as politically motivated. Ennahdha condemned the verdicts on Tuesday, stating that the legal proceedings lacked the most basic conditions for justice.
