The chief of Tunisia’s average Islamist get together has been sentenced to fifteen months in jail for supporting terrorism and inciting hatred within the North African nation
ByBOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA Related Press
October 31, 2023, 11:17 AM
FILE – Chief of the Ennahdha get together, Rached Ghannouchi, speaks to the media after he was freed by the Tunisia’s anti-terrorism unit in Tunis, Tunisia, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. The chief of Tunisia’s average Islamist get together has been sentenced to fifteen months in jail for supporting terrorism and inciting hatred within the North African nation. The Courtroom of Attraction within the capital, Tunis, pronounced the sentence towards the Ennahdha chief Rached Ghannouchi late Monday. (AP Picture/Hassene Dridi, File)
The Related Press
TUNIS, Tunisia — The chief of Tunisia’s average Islamist get together was sentenced to fifteen months in jail for supporting terrorism and inciting hatred within the North African nation, as soon as seen as a mannequin for democracy within the Arab world however more and more authoritarian lately.
The Courtroom of Attraction within the capital, Tunis, pronounced the sentence late Monday towards the Ennahdha chief Rached Ghannouchi, a former speaker of parliament and a vocal opponent of President Kais Saied. Saied has cracked down on critics and political rivals whereas consolidating energy and ruling largely by decree prior to now two years.
Ghannouchi, 82, is the founder and long-time chief of the Islamist get together. He served as speaker of the Ennahdha-led parliament till Saied took all powers into his personal fingers in July 2021, suspending parliament.
Ghannouchi, who has maintained that Saied’s actions amounted to a coup, was arrested in April amid rising social tensions and deepening financial troubles in Tunisia. He was beforehand sentenced within the Courtroom of First Occasion to a 12 months in jail for allegedly referring to law enforcement officials as tyrants in what his get together mentioned was a sham trial.
Along with prolonging the sentence by three months, the Courtroom of Attraction ordered Ghannouchi to pay a effective of 1,000 Tunisian dinars ($300) and positioned the aged chief underneath judicial supervision for 3 years. it
Ghannouchi was not in courtroom for the sentencing late Monday consistent with his get together’s boycott of courts and authorized proceedings towards its members on fees their attorneys have repeatedly denounced as unfounded and politically motivated.
Many former and present officers have been detained as a part of Saied’s anti-corruption marketing campaign or on suspicion of plotting towards the safety of the state. Saied’s critics say the president’s relentless marketing campaign of arrests goals to remove opposition voices in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring pro-democracy opposition greater than a decade in the past.
