One more sentence. Rached Ghannouchi, incarcerated leader of the Tunisian Islamo-conservative movement Ennahda, was sentenced Thursday February 1 to a new prison sentence of three years for illegal financing of his training, his lawyer said.
Bête noire of President Kaïs Saïed, Rached Ghannouchi, who is already serving a 15-month prison sentence, was convicted of "foreign financing" of his Islamist-inspired party Ennahda, lawyer Sami Triki told AFP.
His son-in-law Rafik Abdessalam, former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2011-2013), tried in absentia in the same case, was also sentenced to three years in prison.
In addition to the prison sentences against Rached Ghannouchi and his son-in-law, Ennahda was ordered to pay a fine of 1,170,470 dollars (around one million euros).
“Apologia for terrorism”
Rached Ghannouchi, 82, was arrested on April 17, 2023 after declaring that Tunisia would be threatened with a “civil war” if left-wing parties, or those originating from political Islam like his, were eliminated there.
On May 15, he was sentenced to a year in prison for "apology of terrorism" in another case, a sentence toughened on appeal in October to 15 months.
He was sentenced following a complaint from a police union denouncing comments he made in early 2022 during the funeral of an Ennahda official whom he assured “did not fear the powerful nor tyrants", this word designating police officers, according to the prosecution file.
"Mr Ghannouchi has been incarcerated for a year, it is the prince's doing (President Saïed). He has no guarantee of a fair trial. He refused to go to this trial and I fully support him" , reacted to AFP Ahmed Néjib Chebbi, leader of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition in Tunisia.
Also read Rached Ghannouchi, President Saïed's best enemy
“The day when there is respect for rights, freedoms and when justice is independent, we will talk about a fair trial, but all that is currently happening is a revenge of power against its adversaries,” he said. he adds.
Rached Ghannouchi, whose party dominated governments over the past decade after the 2011 revolt that toppled the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is the most famous opponent imprisoned since President Kaïs Saïed's coup. assumed full powers in July 2021.
Since February 2023, more than twenty opponents, businessmen and other personalities, described as “terrorists” by Kaïs Saïed, have been imprisoned on charges of “plot against internal security”.
The latest arrest, on October 5, is that of the opponent Abir Moussi, leader of the Free Destourian Party, a movement nostalgic for the dictatorships of independence hero Habib Bourguiba and Ben Ali, overthrown during the revolution that marked the start of the Arab Spring.
With AFP
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