Tunisia's Ennahda movement chief sentenced to one year in absentia

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A Tunisian court sentenced in Absentia the leader of the Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, to one year in prison, while also fining him 1,000 dinars ($326) one month after he was first detained, Tunisian media reported on Tuesday.

The case in which Ghannouchi, 81, was accused is related to "glorifying terrorism" and describing security personnel as "tyrants".

The Ennahda movement is not aware of the prison sentence issued by a Tunisian court against its leader, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported on Monday, citing sources in the Tunisian party.

The correspondent quoted the sources as saying that they learned of the verdict from the media, noting that Ghannouchi being sentenced to one year in prison is in light of him describing the Tunisian security forces as "tyrants". 

In turn, Ghannouchi's defense announced that they and their client decided to boycott all hearings and trials, questioning the integrity of the judicial procedures.

The Ennahda leader served as the country's Parliament Speaker before President Kais Saied dissolved the body and assumed all authority in the country.

The leader of the Ennahda Party decided earlier this month not to appear before the judiciary, rejecting what he said were "fabricated political trials."

Ennahda Vice-President Mondher Lounissi told a press conference earlier in the month that Ghannouchi, one of Saied's main opponents, had been taken to a police barracks for questioning and that his lawyers had not been allowed to attend.

His arrest came after media reports in which he allegedly said in an opposition meeting that "Tunisia without Ennahda, without political Islam, without the left or any other component is a project for civil war."

A source at the Interior Ministry quoted by Tunisian media confirmed that Ghannouchi's arrest was linked to these statements.

In response, Ghannouchi considered that the authority is practicing political targeting through judicial means, adding that "the battle in Tunisia is between democracy and dictatorship that wants to confiscate the gains of the revolution."

In the aftermath of Ghannouchi's arrest, the Tunisian security forces shut down the headquarters of the Ennahda movement.

Ghannouchi had already been in court last November over allegations his party had helped militants travel to Iraq and Syria.

Before that, he was interrogated over alleged money laundering in relation to foreign donations for an Ennahdha-linked charity.

Opponents of Saied accuse him of reinstating autocratic rule in Tunisia. After his dramatic power grab, he has since ruled by decree, and last year rammed through a constitution that gave his office unlimited powers and neutered parliament.

Ghannouchi was exiled for more than two decades under ousted President Zine El Abidine Ali but returned following the country's 2011 uprising.

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