فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Tunis: A court in Tunis has delivered severe prison sentences, reaching up to 66 years, at the conclusion of an unprecedented trial for “conspiracy” against the state and President Saied. Around forty defendants, including well-known opposition figures, were tried, defense lawyers stated on Saturday.
Initially, a prosecutor from the anti-terrorism unit, quoted by local media, announced sentences ranging from 13 to 66 years for the accused, who were charged with “plotting against state security” and “joining a terrorist group.”
However, a list provided to AFP by several lawyers, “subject to official confirmation,” indicates a minimum sentence of at least 4 years.
The convicted individuals have the option to appeal these sentences, which were handed down by the court of first instance.
Among those sentenced are politicians, former ministers, lawyers, and businessmen, the majority of whom have been imprisoned for two years, while others are at liberty or in exile.
According to the list shared by at least two lawyers, defendants residing abroad, including French intellectual Bernard Henri-Lévy, received a 33-year prison term. The same sentence was given to prominent feminist activist Bochra Belhaj Hmida and the former head of the presidential cabinet, Nadia Akacha.
“Farce”
Political figures such as Issam Chebbi, leader of the social-democratic Joumhouri party, Jawhar Ben Mbarek, co-founder of the main opposition coalition National Salvation Front, former centrist minister Ghazi Chaouachi, and human rights activist Chaïma Issa, will have to serve 18 years in prison, lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi told AFP.
Former leader of the Ettakatol (social-democratic) party, Khayam Turki, was sentenced to 48 years, while the harshest sentence of 66 years was imposed on Kamel Eltaïef, an influential businessman.
According to the list, former leaders of the Islamist-conservative Ennahdha party, Abdelhamid Jelassi and Noureddine Bhiri, received prison sentences of 13 and 43 years respectively.
The director of private radio Mosaïque FM, Noureddine Boutar, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while a car broker, Hattab Slama, received a 4-year sentence because his vehicle was located near the home of another defendant.
On Friday, during the final hearing of the trial, lawyers like Samia Abbou denounced “a farce” when the judge adjourned the decision without any prosecution requests or defense pleas.
International journalists and foreign diplomats were excluded from the hearing – some defendants were accused of meeting with ambassadors – which took place under heavy police surveillance.
For lawyer Haifa Chebbi, daughter of politician Ahmed Nejib Chebbi (Issam’s brother), who was sentenced to 18 years according to the list, “it is a verdict prepared in advance” that makes her “sad for the state of freedoms in Tunisia.”
One of those tried in absentia, Kamel Jendoubi, denounced a “judicial assassination.” “It is a political decision executed by compliant judges, complicit prosecutors, and a Minister of Justice, the armed wing of a paranoid autocrat,” the former minister lashed out.
Since President Kais Saied’s power grab in the summer of 2021, through which he granted himself full powers, NGOs and opponents have denounced a regression of rights in Tunisia, the country that ignited the Arab Spring in 2011.
For analyst Hatem Nafti, “an acquittal would have negated the conspiratorial narrative on which the regime has been based since 2021,” which is still “accepted by a significant part of the population” due to the “muzzling of most media.”
Dozens of well-known politicians, lawyers, and columnists have been imprisoned since early 2023 under a decree suppressing the dissemination of false news, with a very broad interpretation.
The mega-trial known as the “conspiracy” case opened on March 4th, with detainees supposed to testify via video conference. Their lawyers demanded, without success, their presence in court.
The defense criticized a “empty” case file. For NGO Human Rights Watch, the trial was held in a “repressive context” where the president “is instrumentalizing the judicial system.”
In February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced the “persecution of opponents,” who are “subject to vague accusations after having likely exercised their rights.” The government retorted that the prosecutions concern “public law crimes that have no connection to their partisan, political, or media activity.”
