A court docket in Tunisia has sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh to 34 years in jail on a raft of terrorism costs.
He’s the most recent high-profile critic of the president to be jailed as campaigners slam “sham trials” within the nation.
The 69-year-old is a outstanding opponent of President Kais Saied and chief of Ennadha, a reasonable Islamist occasion that holds the biggest illustration in parliament.
Together with seven different folks, Laarayedh was charged with establishing a terrorist cell and serving to younger Tunisians journey overseas to affix Islamist fighters in Iraq and Syria.
“I’m not a legal… I’m a sufferer on this case,” he wrote in a letter to the court docket’s prosecutor final month, in accordance with the AFP information company.
He was sentenced on Friday.
Laarayedh has persistently denied any wrongdoing and mentioned the case was politically motivated.
In latest weeks, at the least 40 critics of Tunisia’s president have been despatched to jail – together with diplomats, legal professionals and journalists.
Rights teams say these trials have highlighted Saied’s authoritarian management over the judiciary, after dissolving parliament in 2021 and ruling by decree.
Since he was first elected six years in the past, the previous legislation professor has rewritten the structure to reinforce his powers.
Laarayedh was arrested three years in the past and campaigners had known as for his launch -including Human Rights Watch, who mentioned the affair appeared like “yet another instance of President Saied’s authorities attempting to silence leaders of the Ennahda occasion and different opponents by tarring them as terrorists”.
Ennahdha ruled the North African nation for a short time after a well-liked rebellion dubbed the Arab Spring.
The protest motion originated in Tunisia – the place a vegetable-seller known as Mohamed Bouazizi set hearth to himself in despair of presidency corruption – and mass demonstrations quickly unfold throughout the broader area in 2011.
Nonetheless many Tunisians say the democratic features made have since been misplaced, pointing to the present president’s authoritarian grip on energy.
But President Saied has rejected criticism from inside and outdoors the nation, saying he’s combating “traitors” and struggling “blatant international interference”.
Extra BBC tales about Tunisia:
[Getty Images/BBC]
Go to BBCAfrica.com for extra information from the African continent.
Observe us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Fb at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
