Tunisia Sentences Prominent Opposition Leader to Lengthy Prison Term
Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia's Ennahda movement, was among those sentenced as part of a sweeping case in which politicians were charged with conspiring against state security. Several other detained members of his party were sentenced to 12 years. Ghannouchi's party rose to power after Tunisia became the first country in the region to oust a longtime dictator as part of the Arab Spring. He later served as speaker of the country's assembly and is among the opposition figures that have faced prosecution since President Kais Saied took power six years ago.
His defense team denied the charges and said in a statement that proceedings didn't meet the standards of a fair trial. 'All accusations were based on a false and contradictory testimony by a secret anonymous witness who failed to present any evidence for his baseless and contradictory allegations and who ultimately retracted most of them,' attorneys said in a statement. The judge overseeing the case issued arrest warrants for several party members tried in absentia, including Ghannouchi's son and a former foreign minister.
The defendants faced charges including participating in an organization linked to terrorist acts, inciting violence, attempting to overthrow the government, and recruiting and training individuals for terrorist purposes both within Tunisia and abroad.
Ghannouchi, 86, is facing charges in several other cases and refuses to appear before courts he considers politically manipulated. He has already served multiple prison sentences totaling more than 20 years, notably for money laundering. His lawyers denounce what they call unjustified judicial harassment by the authorities and are calling for the release of imprisoned extremist leaders.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
Tunisian jailed after refusing to watch president on TV: lawyer
TUNIS: A Tunisian inmate was sentenced to six months in prison after he was reported to authorities for refusing to watch a TV news segment about President Kais Saied, his lawyer and an NGO said Friday. The inmate's lawyer, Adel Sghaier, said his client was initially prosecuted under Article 67 of the penal code, which covers crimes against the head of state, but the charge was later revised to violating public decency to avoid giving the case a 'political' dimension. The local branch of the Tunisian League for Human Rights in the central town of Gafsa said that the inmate had 'expressed his refusal to watch (coverage of) presidential activities' during a news broadcast that was playing on TV in his cell. He was reported by a cellmate, investigated and later sentenced to six months behind bars, the NGO said, condemning what it called a 'policy of gagging voices that even extends to prisoners in their cells.' Sghaier said his client had been held over an unrelated case that was ultimately dismissed, and that his family only learnt of his other sentence when he wasn't freed as expected. He acknowledged that his client voiced insults and demanded the channel be changed when Saied's image appeared on TV, explaining the man blamed the president for 'ruining his life' by striking a deal with Italy for the deportation of irregular Tunisian immigrants. The man had himself been deported from Italy, where he had been living without documentation. A spokesman for the court in Gafsa could not be reached for comment. Saied, elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab, with local and international organizations decrying a decline in freedoms in the country considered the cradle of the 'Arab Spring.'
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
How Israel lost its best friend in Latin America
Colombia and South Africa will convene an emergency conference on Gaza in Bogota on Tuesday calling on ministers from states across the world to deliberate a multilateral defense of international law, focusing on Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The two countries co-chair The Hague Group of 10 nations from the Global South formed in January to protect and uphold rulings on the Israeli Palestinan conflict by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The aim of the conference is to urgently develop 'concrete legal, diplomatic and economic measures that can halt Israel's destruction – and uphold the foundational principle that no state is above the law.' All countries are invited. For the past several years, Colombia has led a fundamental change in Latin America to turn the tide against Israel there, a change that has accelerated since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023. This change is remarkable, considering that Colombia had been historically a close partner of Israel. Until 2018, it was one of the few remaining governments in Latin America that did not recognize Palestine as a state. Israel was Colombia's main partner in the Middle East and North Africa, while Colombia was Israel's second-largest trading partner in South America. For decades, Colombia's military had a close relationship with Israel's. It acquired numerous weapon systems and ammunition produced and/or maintained by Israel, including the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Spike missile, the Israel Weapons Industries-made 5.56mm Galil automatic rifle machinegun and .7.62mm Galil sniper rifle, Rafael Python-3 and Python-4 air-to-air missiles, and Israel Aerospace Industries Kfir fighter jets, and has signed up for the Barak MX air defense system. It all began to change with Colombia's recognition of the state of Palestine in 2018. Although that drew a strong diplomatic reaction from Israel, their partnership survived. In October 2023, however, Colombia condemned Israel's conduct in Gaza and recalled its ambassador. President Gustavo Petro compared the Israeli military to Nazis. Later that month, Israel halted all security exports to Colombia. In April 2024, Colombia joined 24 other states and international organizations in becoming a party to South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice alleging genocide in the Gaza Strip, in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The longer Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the more Latin and South American nations are breaking their historical ties with Tel Aviv Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg Then, in April this year, Colombia said it would buy up to 24 fighter jets from Swedish company Saab to replace the ageing Israel-made Kfir, whose maintenance has become complicated after Israel and Colombia broke diplomatic ties and stopped military cooperation. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war crimes in Gaza have lost Israel a close ally and the breakup is now near complete. Petro published an opinion article in The Guardian last week on why Colombia had decided to break ties with Israel, in which he said his country had a 'duty to stand up to Israel.' Without such decisive action, the president said, the world risked 'stripping the global legal order of its remaining protections.' For more than 600 days, Netanyahu had led 'a campaign of devastation in Gaza, the escalation of regional conflict, and a reckless abandonment of international law at large,' Petro said. The UN has declared Gaza the 'hungriest place on Earth,' and said its mission to send aid was 'one of the most obstructed … in recent history.' The Hague emergency conference next week is an effort to bring about collective action to counter Israel's accelerated steps to isolate and starve Palestinians in Gaza into submission and kill as many of them as possible to push the rest to leave. Last September, Colombia voted with the majority at the UN to censure Israel and set a deadline of 12 months for it to 'bring to an end without delay its unlawful presence' in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Bogota then began a series of concrete actions to implement the UN resolution, by conducting investigations and prosecutions regarding Israel-connected activities in the country: it applied sanctions and asset freezes against Israeli interests, stopped imports from Israel, especially arms, and stopped coal exports to Israel. Petro said that without such decisive action, 'we risk turning the multilateral system into a talking shop, stripping the legal order of its remaining protections for small, developing and less privileged nations – from west Asia to right here in Latin America,' who rely on the protections provided by international law and multilateral organizations. Colombia has stepped up to the challenge and Petro did not mince words. 'The choice before us is stark and unforgiving. We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics,' he said. Colombia's brave stand is in sharp contrast with many states that have failed to implement this UN resolution, or other similar international sanctions, allowing economic or other calculations to override their moral duties. For some states, fear of reprisals from Israel and its ally the US has played a key role in that failure. Colombia's position marks a seismic shift among Latin American countries, which in the past supported Israel. They played a decisive role in supporting the 1947 UN partition plan that led to the establishment of Israel, with 13 of them voting in favor. Streets in Jerusalem, such as Guatemala Street, Brazil Street, Costa Rica Street and Mexico Street, are named after these countries in recognition of that role. But the Gaza war is changing that. Now most counties in South and Latin America vote at the UN with the majority of nations in support of Palestinian rights, and recognize the state of Palestine. In addition to Colombia, Chile has also joined South Africa's genocide case. Brazil, Colombia, Chile and others have recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv and strongly condemned Israeli actions. In 2023, Belize and Bolivia severed diplomatic relations with Israel. However, Israel still has friends there, such as Argentina under the current rightist government, Guatemala, Panama and several others. The longer Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the more it blatantly breaks international law and rejects initiatives to deescalate, the more Latin and South American nations are breaking their historical ties with Tel Aviv, despite the heavy price they may have to pay. Colombia is a perfect example of a friend-turned-foe as a result of Israeli intransigence. * Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily represent those of the GCC. X: @abuhamad1
Arab News
18 hours ago
- Arab News
Greece to adopt legislation against migrant ‘invasion' from Libya
ATHENS: Greece on Friday was to enforce a three-month freeze on asylum claims from migrants arriving by boat from North Africa, to stem a surge from Libya that the government has called an 'invasion.' Conservative lawmakers, who hold a parliamentary majority, are expected to approve emergency legislation enforcing the temporary ban, allowing authorities to detain asylum seekers in camps for up to 18 months. 'We have made the difficult but absolutely necessary decision to temporarily suspend the examination process of asylum applications for those arriving by sea from North African countries,' Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement to German tabloid Bild on Friday. 'This decision sends a clear message, leaving no room for misinterpretation, to human trafficking networks: Greece is not an open transit route. The journey is dangerous, the outcome uncertain, and the money paid to smugglers ultimately wasted,' he said. Greece's migration ministry says over 14,000 migrants have reached the country this year, including over 2,000 in recent days from Libya. 'Greece cannot have boats totaling 1,000 people a day,' Migration Minister Thanos Plevris told Skai TV, adding that the country will undertake a 'draconian revision' of how it deals with migrants. Plevris – formerly a member of the far-right LAOS party and now part of Mitsotakis's New Democracy party – has called the recent influx an 'invasion from North Africa.' The move has been criticized by rights groups as a violation of international and EU law, and opposition parties have called it unconstitutional. Noting an 'exceptional' situation, European Commission migration spokesperson Markus Lammert said on Thursday: 'We are in close contact with the Greek authorities to obtain necessary information on these measures.' Greece took similar steps in 2020 during a migration surge at its land border with Turkiye. To manage the influx, the government could reopen camps built after the 2015 migration crisis, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said this week. Mitsotakis also told parliament that it would build up to two additional camps on the island of Crete.
