New prison term for Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi
3 Min Read
The jailed leader of the Tunisian opposition party Ennahda was sentenced for receiving "foreign financing" for his party.
-
Leader of the Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, speaks to the media after he was freed by Tunisia's anti-terrorism unit in Tunis, Tunisia, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)
Rached Ghannouchi, the jailed leader of the Tunisian opposition party Ennahda, was sentenced Thursday to a new three-year prison term for the illegal financing of his party, his lawyer confirmed.
Ghannouchi -- who was already serving a 15-month prison sentence over charges related to "terrorism" -- was sentenced for receiving "foreign financing" for his party, his lawyer Sami Triki told AFP.
His son-in-law Rafik Abdessalam, a former foreign minister, was tried in absentia in the same case and also sentenced to three years in prison.
In addition to the prison sentences for Ghannouchi and his son-in-law, Ennahda was ordered to pay a fine of $1.17 million. In the previous year, Tunisian authorities prohibited gatherings at all Ennahda offices, and the police closed the headquarters of the Salvation Front, the primary opposition coalition, which rights groups labeled as a de facto ban.
Ghannouchi, 82, was arrested in April 2023 for "inciting violence" and "plotting against state security", after he said that eradicating differing political viewpoints might lead to a "civil war" in the North African country.
He was convicted last May and sentenced to 12 months in jail, which was then extended to 15 months on appeal in October.
His conviction followed a complaint from a police union over comments he had made in early 2022 during the funeral of an Ennahda official.
He had said the official "did not fear the powerful nor tyrants", a comment that prosecutors said belittled police officers.
Ghannouchi, whose party dominated Tunisia following the 2011 uprising that toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is the most well-known opposition figure imprisoned since current President Kais Saied's power grab in July 2021.
Rights groups have since reported a crackdown on opposition figures, including politicians and businessmen. They include the arrest on October 5 last year and the jailing of Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party.
President Saied abruptly shuttered the parliament, dismissed the government, and assumed rule by decree in July 2021, proceeding to rewrite the constitution that had previously passed through a referendum with a low turnout two years earlier.
Despite assertions from critics characterizing his actions as a coup, Saied has consistently denied such claims, asserting that they were necessary to rescue Tunisia from years of chaos. He has labeled his detractors as criminals, traitors, and terrorists, cautioning that any judge who released them would be deemed as aiding them.
