On Saturday, a Tunisian court sentenced dozens of opposition figures on national security charges.
Forty people were being prosecuted in the trial, which started in March. Over 20 have fled abroad since being charged and have been sentenced in absentia.
The prison sentences range from 13 to 66 years. Among those sentenced are a number of Tunisia’s most senior opposition politicians.
Jawhara FM quoted an official from the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office as saying the defendants were found guilty of “conspiracy against state security”, and “belonging to a terrorist group”, including liaising with “foreign powers” to undermine Saied’s rule.
Critics say the charges are fabricated and are symbolic of President Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule.
Rights groups say that Saied has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree.
Speaking to Al Jazeera earlier this month, Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said,
“President Saied has weaponized Tunisia’s judicial system to go after political opponents and dissidents, throwing people in arbitrary detention on flimsy evidence and pursuing them with abusive prosecutions.”
Read more on Al Jazeera here and on the Guardian here.