Ayachi Zammel: Tunisian politician faces 30 years in prison
Ayachi Zammel, the jailed Tunisian politician who challenged the incumbent president in recent elections, has been sentenced to over 30 years in prison.
According to the NewArab, his lawyer said on 22nd October that recent rulings now mean the liberal party leader has cumulative sentences amounting to greater than three decades.
Zammel is one of only two candidates that were allowed to run against President Kais Saied in the Tunisian elections this month.
As leader of liberal party Azimoun, he received seven percent of the presidential vote in the election, whereas Saied won more than 90 percent, according to the election board, ISIE.
READ: Voting ends in Tunisia election
Zammel remained in jail throughout the vote after he was arrested in early September, the same day the electoral authorities approved his candidacy.
On 21st October, his lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi told the AFP that Zammel had received five more years behind bars over falsified ballot endorsements during the 6th October election.
A court in the central city of Kairouan handed him three 20-month sentences for three separate cases said Messaoudi.
Three of Zammel’s brothers were also prosecuted in the same cases and received similar jail terms.
The incumbent president Kais Saied was democratically elected in 2019 but two years later dissolved parliament and held a successful referendum to change country’s constitution.
According to the NewArab, this move was a sweeping power grab which cemented Saied’s position as head of state.
Zammel, a former businessman and lawmaker, currently faces 37 cases, all over the same accusation of fake endorsements.
On 5th September, the European Union denounced “a continued limitation of democratic space in Tunisia”.
The comments followed Zammel’s arrest, which his campaign called “political”, and the ISIE’s disregarding of a Tunisian court ruling granting appeals to three candidates to join the presidential race.
NewArab
