Ghannouchi’s Ennahda Occasion is accused of receiving overseas funds as President Kais Saied continues crackdown on opposition.
A Tunisian courtroom has sentenced opposition chief Rached Ghannouchi to 3 years in jail over accusations that his Ennahda Occasion obtained overseas contributions, official information company Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) reported, amid an escalating crackdown on dissent within the North African nation.
The trial courtroom, which specialises in monetary corruption, additionally fined Ennahda $1.1m for receiving overseas funds, TAP mentioned on Thursday.
Ghannouchi’s son-in-law Rafik Abdessalem, a former overseas minister, was sentenced to 3 years in jail as nicely.
A former speaker of the Tunisian parliament, Ghannouchi, 82, was arrested final 12 months and sentenced to one year in jail on separate costs of incitement.
Rights teams beforehand denounced Ghannouchi’s detention, accusing the federal government of President Kais Saied of repressing political opposition.
Final 12 months’s sentence was handed to Ghannouchi in absentia as a result of he refused to seem earlier than the courtroom, arguing that the fees towards him had been political.
“Tunisian authorities are more and more utilizing repressive, vaguely-worded legal guidelines as a pretext for repression and to arrest, examine and in some instances prosecute dissidents and opposition figures,” Amnesty Worldwide mentioned in 2023.
“The sentencing of Rashed Ghannouchi exhibits a rising crackdown on human rights and opposition and a deeply worrying sample.”
Over the previous years, Tunisian authorities have arrested a number of distinguished opposition figures as Saied pushed to consolidate energy.
Elected in 2019, Saied – a former legislation professor – froze the Tunisian parliament in 2021 and subsequently dissolved the legislature to rule by decree. Tunisia held legislative elections in late 2022 that had been mired by low turnout amid an opposition boycott.
Earlier that 12 months, Saied efficiently pushed a constitutional referendum that expanded the powers of the presidency.
Critics have decried Saied’s energy seize as a “coup” that risked bringing the nation again to the authoritarianism of the pre-2011 rebellion that toppled longtime Tunisian chief Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
“Since his energy seize, Saied largely undermined the independence of the judiciary in an effort to subjugate judges and prosecutors to the manager department,” Human Rights Watch says in a reality sheet about Tunisia.
“The authorities have escalated their crackdown on political opponents and perceived critics for his or her peaceable activism or public criticism of the president, the safety forces, or different officers. They’ve stepped up arbitrary arrests, journey bans, and prosecutions, typically in army courts.”
However Saied has mentioned that his insurance policies intention to struggle corruption and incompetence within the authorities.
Ennahda had emerged as one among Tunisia’s largest events after the 2011 rebellion, and Ghannouchi led a power-sharing settlement with late President Beji Caid Essebsi to transition the nation to democracy.
Final 12 months, the Tunisian authorities closed down Ennahda’s headquarters in Tunis.
