Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (Al Jazeera - Archive)
The Tunisian Court of First Instance sentenced former President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki to 8 years in prison in absentia, on charges of “assaulting state security and inciting Tunisians against each other.”
Court spokesman Mohamed Zaitouneh said - in a statement to the official news agency - that the ruling came after Marzouki was convicted of inciting chaos on Tunisian soil and inciting residents to attack each other, after the social networks circulated a speech of his at a symposium organized abroad, during which he incited state institutions to leave. And move to overthrow the state system.”
Zaitouneh did not mention when these statements attributed to Marzouki were issued, nor did he name the social media outlet through which Marzouki made those statements.
This is the second ruling issued by the Tunisian judiciary in absentia against Marzouki, who resides in France, as the same court had previously issued against him - in December 2021 - a 4-year prison sentence on charges of assaulting state security abroad and causing diplomatic harm to the country.
Marzouki, who held the presidency of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014, is one of the most vocal critics of current President Kais Saied.
Opposition leaders are imprisoned
Saied had closed parliament and dismissed the government in 2021 and later began ruling by decree, a move that Marzouki and the main opposition leaders described as a coup.
Most of the opposition leaders have been arrested since last year, including the head of the Ennahdha Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, and the leader of the Free Destourian Party, Abeer Moussa, in addition to prominent opposition figures, including Johar Ben Mubarak, Khayyam al-Turki, Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chabbi, Abdelhamid al-Jalasi, and Reda Belhaj.
The opposition and human rights groups accuse Saied of muzzling the press and imposing authoritarian rule, and say that his constitutional changes destroyed the emerging democracy. The president rejects these accusations and accuses his critics of criminals, traitors, and terrorists.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies