{"id":47790,"date":"2025-04-19T08:54:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T12:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/tunisian-opposition-leaders-jailed-on-terror-charges\/19\/04\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T08:54:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T12:54:32","slug":"tunisian-opposition-leaders-jailed-on-terror-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/tunisian-opposition-leaders-jailed-on-terror-charges\/19\/04\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisian opposition leaders jailed on terror charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A court in Tunisia has sentenced a group of senior politicians, businessmen and lawyers to long prison sentences on conspiracy and terrorism charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The defendants received sentences of up to 66 years. They include leaders of National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, who were arrested in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Human rights groups described the trial as an attempt to stifle dissent. A defence lawyer said it was a &#8220;farce&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">President Kais Saied suspended parliament after being elected in 2019. Last year he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cx25ree1g18o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:won a second term by a landslide;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">won a second term by a landslide<\/a>, after jailing dissidents and potential rivals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the latest case, a total of 40 defendants were accused of &#8220;conspiracy against state security&#8221; and &#8220;belonging to a terrorist group&#8221;. Most had left the country and were tried in absentia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Those in detention include National Salvation Front leaders Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They were given 18-year sentences, a defence lawyer told AFP news agency following the ruling late on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Kamel Eltaief, an activist and businessman, was jailed for 66 years, the lawyer added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Kamel Jendoubi, a former minister who was tried in absentia, told AFP news agency: &#8220;This is not a judiciary ruling, but a political decree executed by judges under orders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Defence lawyer Ahmed Souab is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying: &#8220;I have never witnessed a trial like this. It&#8217;s a farce.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tunisia is the country where a wave of pro-democracy protests in the Arab world began in late 2010. The country&#8217;s long-time strongman, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was ousted within weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last year&#8217;s election was Tunisia&#8217;s third presidential vote since then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rights group Amnesty International has denounced &#8220;a worrying decline in fundamental rights&#8221; under Saied&#8217;s government as discontent rises over his authoritarian style of governance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Saied has rejected the criticism, saying he is fighting a &#8220;corrupt elite&#8221; and &#8220;traitors&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/tunisian-opposition-leaders-jailed-terror-105803896.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A court in Tunisia has sentenced a group of senior politicians, businessmen and lawyers to long prison sentences on conspiracy and terrorism<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/tunisian-opposition-leaders-jailed-on-terror-charges\/19\/04\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/7f3672a253ff37970f233244eb56776f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}