Tunisia appeals court raises prison sentence of Ennahda leader Ghannouchi to 20 years

By Adel al-Thabti

TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) - An appeals court in Tunisia has increased the prison sentence of Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the country’s Ennahda Movement and former parliament speaker, to 20 years on charges of “conspiring against state security,” local media said Tuesday.

The state news agency TAP, citing a judicial source, said the court also handed down the same sentence to Kamal Al-Badawi, a former security official.

A court of first instance had earlier sentenced both Ghannouchi and Badawi to 14 years in prison.

The appeals court also sentenced Rayan Al-Hamzawi, mayor of Zahra in Ben Arous governorate in northeastern Tunisia, to three years in prison, down from 12 years, and sentenced both Mahrez Al-Zouari, a former intelligence chief, and Abdelkarim Al-Abidi, a former head of aircraft protection at Tunis-Carthage International Airport, to seven years each, down from 12 years in prison.

The court also ordered that the convicted defendants be placed under administrative supervision for five years starting from the end of their prison terms, except for Hamzawi, who was given two years of supervision.

Ghannouchi, 84, has been held since April 2023.

Tunisian authorities say Ghannouchi and other defendants are being prosecuted on criminal charges related to state security and deny any political interference in judicial proceedings. Critics and opposition figures, however, argue the cases are part of a wider campaign targeting opponents of President Kais Saied’s exceptional measures introduced in July 2021.

Saied maintains that those steps were taken to protect the state and restore order, rejecting accusations of rolling back democratic freedoms.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel