Tunisian opposition leader sentenced to a further three years in jail

Rached Ghannouchi, the jailed leader of the Tunisian opposition party Ennahda, has been sentenced to another three years in prison on charges of accepting illegal financing.

Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda main opposition party and a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, has been in prison since April 2023.

He was serving a 15-month sentence on charges of incitement against police.

On Thursday, a Tunisian judge handed the 82-year-old a three-year term for receiving "foreign financing" for the Islamist party, according to his lawyer.

The court also imprisoned Ghannouchi's son-in-law, Rafik Abdessalem, a senior Ennahda official and former foreign minister, to three years in prison in the same case.

Ennahda was ordered to pay a $1.1 million fine.
The Islamist party rejected what it called an "unjust sentence" saying it would continue to defend itself and strive against the injustice.

It claimed the party had never received funding from any foreign entity, and its sole account is under the supervision of all judicial and financial institutions and is fully transparent and flawless.

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Doubts over fair trial

Ghannouchi was arrested in April 2023 for inciting violence and plotting against state security after he said that eradicating differing political viewpoints from leftwing or Islamist parties might lead to a "civil war". 

He was convicted of terrorism-related charges in May and sentenced to 12 months in jail, which was then lengthened to 15 months on appeal in October.

"Ghannouchi has been in jail for a year at the doing of the prince (Saied)," Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, leader of  Tunisia's main opposition coalition, the Salvation Front, told France's AFP news agency.

"He has no guarantee of a fair trial. He has refused to present himself for trial, and he has my complete backing. All that's happening now is those in power taking revenge on their adversaries."

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Ghannouchi, whose party dominated Tunisia following the 2011 "Jasmine Revolution" that toppled the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is the most well-known opposition figure imprisoned since Saied's power-grab in July 2021. 

Last year Tunisian authorities banned meetings at all Ennahda offices and police closed the Salvation Front's headquarters in what rights groups called a de facto ban.

Rights groups have reported a crackdown on opposition figures, including politicians and business people.

(with newswires)