A Tunisian court issued prison sentences between 13 and 66 years to multiple defendants, including the prominent opposition figures, for national security crimes, local media reported on Saturday, April 19.
The trial, criticized by the rights groups and denounced by a defense lawyer as a “masquerade”, is of an unprecedented scale with about 40 defendants, including the vocal critics of President Kais Saied. They found guilty of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group,” said an official of the office of the anti -terrorist prosecutor to the media, including Jahwara FM.
The lawyers contacted by the agency France-Presse (AFP) said that they had not notified the bone of the sentences, and that it was not clear immediately if all the defendants had received prison sentences or just some of them.
Among those sentenced were well -known opposition figures, lawyers and businessmen, with Bolyady in prison for two years, while others were exiled or still free.
Kamel Jendoubi, a defender of rights and former court in absence, criticized a “judicial murder” by the courts. “This is not a judicial ruling, but a political decree executed by judges under orders, by prosecutors for congratulations and a minister of justice” that serves “a paranoid autocrat,” he accused Jendoubi.
Since Saied launched energy in the summer of 2021, a duration of what the total control assumed, the defenders of the rights and figures of the opposition have denounced a reversal of the freedoms in the country in North Africa, where it begged the Arab spring of 2011.
‘Weapon’ the courts
On Friday night, defense lawyers denounced the trial after the judge finished reading the accusations and begging the deliberation without taking into account the prosecution or defense.
Samia Abbou, one of the lawyers, told AFP that it was “flagrant violations of the judicial procedure” with the defendant “not listened to”, denouncing him as a “masquerade.”
The audience lasted much of the day, with the prohibited media of the procedures, together with foreign diplomats who had previously admitted.
Among the well -known opposition names in the trial are Jawhar Ben Mbarek, Abdelhamid Jelassi and Issam Chebbi of the opposition of the National Coalition of the Salvation Front. Also among the defendants are activists Khayam Turki and Chaima Issa and businessman Kamel EltaEf.
Since the procedures begged on March 4, defense lawyers have repeatedly asked all defendants who appear before the Court, including at least six who have been on hunger strike. The lawyers denounced the case as “emptiness”, while Human Rights Watch said that the trial was being carried out in the context of repression with President Saied “Armando the judicial system to attack opponents and dissidents.”
The Hatem Natfi analyst said in an X publication that any incorporation into the massive essay “would have denied the conspirator narrative in which the regime has been based since 2021” and “accepted by a large part of the population” that depends on the coverage of the restricted media.
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