Worldwide Committee for Solidarity with Rached Ghannouchi decries ‘repressive marketing campaign’ towards Ennahdha occasion chief.
Marking the second anniversary of the arrest of Tunisia’s outstanding opposition chief Rached Ghannouchi, a global committee fashioned final 12 months to lift consciousness about his imprisonment says he’s being held “unjustly” and on “trumped-up costs”.
The Worldwide Committee for Solidarity with Rached Ghannouchi known as for the rapid launch of the imprisoned Ennahdha occasion chief and former speaker of Tunisia’s parliament.
In an announcement on Thursday, it mentioned that greater than 15 circumstances have been introduced towards Ghannouchi, and “a number of unjust convictions and sentences” have been issued.
The latest of those was a 22-year jail sentence issued in February on costs that included plotting towards state safety – a case “to which he has no connection”, the committee mentioned.
Earlier this 12 months, Ghannouchi was additionally sentenced to a few years for accusations that his occasion acquired international contributions.
The 83-year-old, who has been the primary rival of Tunisian President Kais Saied, was arrested in April 2023 and sentenced to 1 12 months in jail on costs of incitement.
He has been a vocal critic of Saied, and have become the highest-profile determine to be arrested within the persevering with consolidation of energy by the president who was elected in 2019 and has overseen a wave of repression and authorized reforms which have expanded his rule.
“These unjust trials and sentences happen throughout the context of a widespread repressive marketing campaign led by Kais Saied’s regime, which is focusing on opposition voices from all backgrounds, repressing organised motion in all its varieties, controlling the media and civil society, and silencing vital voices,” the committee mentioned in its assertion.
It mentioned Saied’s authorities has to “exploit the judiciary as a software for settling political scores”.
‘An period of political prisoners’
The committee’s assertion comes simply days after United States-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) known as on the Tunisian authorities to halt its crackdown on opposition and free all detainees.
The rights group mentioned arbitrary detention was getting used to remove dissent in Tunisia amid a trial of outstanding opposition figures – together with Ghannouchi – on conspiracy costs.
In a report launched Wednesday, HRW strengthened opposition leaders’ concern over what they name the authoritarian rule of Saied since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and commenced ruling by decree.
The opposition described Saied’s transfer as a coup. He has denied such accusations, professing he wouldn’t turn into a dictator however relatively is attempting to rescue the North African nation from political chaos and rampant corruption.
The report mentioned Tunis had turned arbitrary detention right into a cornerstone of repressive coverage.
“Saied’s authorities has returned the nation to an period of political prisoners, robbing Tunisians of hard-won civil liberties,” mentioned Bassam Khawaja, deputy Center East and North Africa director at HRW.
Since 2023, authorities have arrested dozens of outstanding political opposition figures in addition to journalists, activists and legal professionals in a crackdown critics say has undermined the democracy gained within the 2011 Arab Spring common rebellion.
