After encouraging hatred and supporting terrorism in Tunisia, which was previously considered an Arab example for democracy but has since become more authoritarian, the leader of the moderate Islamist party in the country received a 15-month prison sentence.
President Kais Saied’s vociferous opponent and former speaker of parliament, Rached Ghannouchi, is the leader of Ennahdha. The Court of Appeal in Tunis announced the sentence against him late on Monday. Over the past two years, Saied has consolidated his power and ruled primarily by decree, cracking down on opponents and political rivals alike.
The Islamist party’s founder and longtime leader, Ghannouchi, is eighty-two years old. Before Saied seizing total control and suspending parliament in July 2021, he was the speaker of the Ennahdha-led legislature.
Ghannouchi was detained in April amidst escalating social unrest and worsening economic problems in Tunisia. He has stated that Saied’s actions amounted to a coup. He was previously given a year in prison by the Court of First Instance for allegedly calling police officers tyrants during what his side claimed was a sham trial.
The Court of Appeal ordered Ghannouchi to pay a fine of $1,000 (or $300) and placed the senior leader under judicial surveillance for a period of three years, in addition to extending the sentence by three months. it
In keeping with his party’s boycott of courts and legal actions against its members on accusations their attorneys have consistently criticized as baseless and politically driven, Ghannouchi did not appear in court for the late Monday, October, 30, 2023 sentence.
As part of Saied’s anti-corruption effort or on the grounds that they may be conspiring to undermine state security, numerous officials, both past and present, have been placed under house arrest. Saied’s detractors claim that the president’s ceaseless campaign of arrests is intended to silence opposition voices in Tunisia, which more than ten years ago gave rise to the Arab Spring pro-democracy opposition.
