Tunisian court sentences opposition leaders for 'plotting against the state'
Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, was sentenced to 14 years, his party said. He was already jailed and had refused to attend his trial.
Around 20 people were prosecuted in this case, including Nadia Akacha, former chief of staff to President Kais Saied, and Rafik Abdessalem, Ghannouchi's son-in-law and former foreign minister.
Both, who are currently living abroad, were sentenced in absentia to 35 years in prison, according to media reports.
They were accused of "conspiracy against the internal security of the State" and "forming an organisation and conspiracy related to terrorist crimes".
Ghannouchi and other Ennahdha leaders, along with retired military officer Kamel ben Bedoui, were accused of establishing a "secret security apparatus" in the service of the Islamist party, which won the post-revolution elections in 2011.
Ghannouchi was speaker of parliament at the time of President Saied's coup in the summer of 2021. He was sentenced in early February to 22 years in prison, also for "conspiracy against state security".
In April, another mega-trial sentenced numerous opposition figures to terms of up to 66 years in prison, also for "conspiracy".
President Saied assumed full powers in July 2021, in what his opponents have described as a coup, and since then Tunisian and foreign NGOs have reported a regression of rights and freedoms in the country that was the birthplace of the "Arab Spring".
Numerous journalists, bloggers and lawyers have been arrested or are under investigation under a decree-law purporting to combat "fake news", but which rights groups say has been widely used to repress dissent.
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