Tunisia prisoners ex-prime minister Minister on terrorist charges

A court in Tunisia sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh to 34 years in prison in a series of terrorist charges.

He is the newest high -profile critic of the president who is imprisoned as campaigners in the country.

The 69 -year -old is a prominent critic of President Kais Saied and leader of the popular Ennadha party – the largest in parliament – that promotes Islamist ideals.

Together with seven other people, Laarayedh was accused of setting up a terrorist cell and helping young Tunisians to travel abroad to join Islamic hunters in Iraq and Syria.

“I am not a criminal … I am a victim in this case,” he wrote in a letter to the court’s public prosecutor last month, according to the AFP press office.

He was convicted on Friday.

Laarayedh consistently denied misconduct and said that the case was politically motivated.

In recent weeks, At least 40 critics of the president of Tunisia were sent to prison – including diplomats, lawyers and journalists.

Rights groups say that these processes have emphasized Saied’s authoritarian control over the judiciary, after resolving the parliament in 2021 and ruling by decree.

Since he was chosen for the first time six years ago, the former professor of Rights has rewritten the Constitution to improve his powers.

Laarayedh was arrested three years ago and campaigners had called for his release –Including Human Rights WatchHe said that the affair looked like “another example of President Saied’s authorities who tried to silence the leaders of the Ennahda party and other opponents by Tarrists as terrorists.”

Ennahdha ruled the North African nation for a short time after a popular rebellion called the Arab Spring.

The protest movement originated in Tunisia – where a vegetable susceptible named Mohamed Bouazizi set itself on fire in despair of government corruption – and mass demonstrations soon spread across the wider region in 2011.

However, many Tunisians say that the democratic winins have been lost since then, pointing to the authoritarian grip of the current president.

Nevertheless, President Saied criticized from inside and outside the country and said he is fighting “traitors” and suffers “flagrant foreign interference”.