Tunisian Court Upholds Prison Terms of Up to 45 Years for Opposition Figures

Tunisia's Cassation Court on Thursday confirmed prison sentences reaching as high as 45 years for a group of opposition leaders, lawyers and businessmen convicted of plotting against the state, according to their lawyers and families who spoke to Reuters.

The decision closes out a three-year legal process and, under Tunisian law, cannot be appealed further. Opposition figures argue the ruling cements President Kais Saied's authoritarian control over the country.

One of the country's largest political cases

In total, 40 people were charged with conspiring to overthrow the president, making it one of the largest political prosecutions in Tunisia's recent history. Twenty of the defendants had already fled the country and were tried and sentenced in absentia.

Lawyer Haifa Chebbi — whose father, prominent opposition figure and National Salvation Front leader Nejib Chebbi, received a 12-year sentence — said the verdict demonstrates that the judiciary is not independent. She said those imprisoned were jailed for political reasons and would only be released once Saied is no longer in power.

The president's position

Saied has repeatedly insisted that Tunisia's judiciary remains independent and that he has no intention of becoming a dictator. Yet in 2023, when most of the defendants were arrested, he described the politicians as "traitors and terrorists" and accused any judge who might acquit them of being their accomplice. Tunisia's justice minister has said the defendants sought to destabilise the country and remove Saied from office.

Human rights organisations say Saied has effectively controlled the judiciary since 2021, when he suspended parliament and assumed sweeping emergency powers, going on to rule by decree. In 2022, he dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges.

Among those sentenced, prominent opposition figures Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawhar Ben Mbarek and Ridha Belhaj each received 20-year prison terms, while politician Noureddine Bhiri was sentenced to 10 years.