Tunisia: controversial trial of political opponents to start
The trial for conspiracy against the State, in which forty including seven leading political opponents will appear, will start on March 4th.
According to RFI, families and lawyers fear for an unfair trial that will serve as a dissuasive reminder to the opposition not to challenge President Saied.
The list of defendants includes prominent opposition figures, journalists, lawyers and important figures of civil society, who have been indicted for “conspiracy against the safety of the State”, an accusation for which sentences range from prison sentences to capital punishment.
While most of them are suspected by the judiciary of having had foreign contacts, mainly with diplomats, they all share the sin of having criticized or challenged Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule.
Most of the defendants were arrested in a vast operation led by the Tunisian police in 2023 after which the president of Tunisia had called them “terrorists”.
Despite their political differences, Islamist party Ennahda Abdelhamid Jelassi, left-wing figure Jawhar Ben Mbarek and centrist Issam Chebbi were all part of the National Salvation Front formed in 2023 as a bulwark against Saied’s dictatorial velleities.
In a letter shared from his cell, Jawhar Ben Mbarek denounced the authorities’ “legal harassment” aiming at “methodically eliminating dissenting voices” within the country.
Many point to the kafkaesque nature of the proceedings, as “witness and evidences are kept secret” noted Ennahda’s Riad Chaibi, while lawyer Samir Dilou – also a member of the Islamist pasty – says the whole affair “went from judiciary absurdity to justiciary madness”.
For Ben Mbarek’s sister, lawyer Dalila Msaddek, the case against the defendants is “baseless” except for ”accusations based on false testimonies”.
The authorities decided the defendants would appear before the judge remotely, a further denial of the defendant’s rights to a fair trial, says historical opponents Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, also the brother of Issam Chebbi and himself a defendant in the proceedings.
Tunisia was recently pinned down by the UN Human rights office for prosecuting political opponents that only used their right to freedom of speech, an accusation Tunis denies, saying all were tried for common offences.
In February, Ennahda chief and former speaker of the Parliament Rached Ghannouchi was sentenced to 22 years in jail for “threatening State security”, an accusation that has been widely described as spurious.
RFI, Jeune Afrique.
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