Tunisia\u2019s Court of Cassation has dismissed the final appeals of dozens of opposition figures in a landmark trial, confirming prison sentences of up to 45 years for individuals accused of conspiring to overthrow President Kais Saied. The ruling on Thursday concludes three years of legal proceedings involving 40 defendants, including political leaders, lawyers, businessmen, and human rights advocates. Approximately half of those convicted were sentenced in absentia after fleeing the country.<\/p>\n
Among those affected by the decision is Najib Chebbi, leader of the National Salvation Front, who was handed a 12-year sentence. Other prominent opposition figures, including Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawhar Ben Mbarek, and Ridha Belhaj, each received 20-year terms, while politician Noureddine Bhiri was sentenced to 10 years.<\/p>\n
Critics argued the proceedings lacked fairness. Haifa Chebbi, a lawyer and daughter of Najib Chebbi, stated that the verdict demonstrated the judiciary is not independent. She described the case as a politically motivated effort to imprison dissenters, asserting, \u201cOpponents entered prison by political decision and will leave when Saied falls.\u201d Additionally, defense attorneys reported they were notified of the Thursday hearing only on Monday, leaving insufficient time to prepare their clients’ defenses.<\/p>\n
Dalila Msaddek, whose brother Jawhar Ben Mbarek was among the convicted, expressed on Facebook that the legal phase has ended and a \u201cpurely political battle\u201d now begins. The case is viewed as a significant indicator of democratic decline since Saied assumed office in 2019. Since taking power, Saied has governed largely through decrees, dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council, and dismissed numerous judges.<\/p>\n
The Tunisian government has rejected claims of political persecution. Justice Minister said the defendants intended to destabilize the nation. In 2023, President Saied labeled the accused \u201ctraitors and terrorists\u201d and warned that any judges who acquitted them would be treated as accomplices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tunisia’s Court of Cassation has upheld prison sentences up to 45 years for dozens of opposition figures, marking the end of a three-year legal battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[590,414,33,36,587,10],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-courts","tag-human-rights","tag-middle-east","tag-politics","tag-tunisia","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}