Tunisia hands lengthy prison terms to opposition leaders on conspiracy charges

A Tunisian court on Saturday handed jail terms of 13 to 66 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiring, a case the opposition says is fabricated and a symbol of President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule.

Rights groups say Saied has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree. He dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges in 2022.

A lawyer for the defendants, Abdessatar Massoudi, told Reuters that the maximum sentence was 66 years for businessman Kamel Ltaif, while opposition politician Khyam Turki received a 48-year sentence.

The court also sentenced prominent opposition figures including Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawahar Ben Mbrak and Ridha Belhaj to 18 years in prison. They have been in custody since being detained in 2023.

"We are not surprised by these unjust and vengeful verdicts that seek to silence the voices of these opposition figures," Chaouachi's son Youssef told Reuters.

Forty people were being prosecuted in the trial that started in March. More than 20 have fled abroad since being charged.

"I have never witnessed a trial like this. It's a farce, the rulings are ready, and what is happening is scandalous and shameful," said lawyer Ahmed Souab, who also represents the defendants, on Friday before the ruling was handed down.

Authorities say the defendants, who also include former officials and former head of intelligence Kamel Guizani, tried to destabilise the country and overthrow Saied.

"The authorities want to criminalise the opposition," said the leader of the main National Salvation Front opposition coalition, Nejib Chebbi, on Friday. Chebbi was also among the defendants.

Saied said in 2023 the politicians were "traitors and terrorists" and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.

The opposition leaders involved in the case accuse Saied of staging a coup in 2021 and say the case is fabricated to stifle the opposition and establish a one-man, repressive rule.

They say they were preparing an initiative aimed at uniting the fragmented opposition to face the democratic setback in the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Most of the leaders of political parties in Tunisia are in prison, including Abir Moussi, leader of the Free Constitutional Party, and Rached Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda - two of Saied’s most prominent opponents.