In a scene that reflects the accelerating collapse of the rule of law in Tunisia, the judiciary has issued a new prison sentence against Rached Ghannouchi, as part of a judicial trajectory that has come to epitomise the use of justice as a tool to eliminate political opponents, in flagrant violation of the most basic standards of fair trial enshrined in national law and international conventions.
The Court of First Instance in Tunis handed down a new ruling sentencing the head of the Ennahda Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, to three years’ imprisonment and a financial fine, in a fabricated case related to the alleged acceptance of indirect foreign funding.
Ghannouchi’s defence team stated in a press release that the verdict was issued without their knowledge of the details or stages of the case, an incident that constitutes a blatant violation of the right to defence and exposes the nature of a judicial process based on exclusion rather than genuine adjudication.
Issuing a criminal conviction without enabling lawyers to access the case file or to know the charges and evidence prior to the ruling amounts to the effective execution of the principle of a fair trial. The right to defence is not a privilege granted by authority, but a fundamental pillar of justice; any infringement of it transforms the judiciary into an instrument of repression rather than an institution of separation of powers and protection of rights.
Moreover, postponing the disclosure of the case’s reasoning to the appeal stage empties the right to litigation of its substance, undermines the principle of adversarial proceedings, and erodes the presumption of innocence, which should accompany the accused until a final judgment based on transparent and impartial procedures is issued. What is unfolding is a process of prior punishment, followed by a search for a legal façade after the fact.
This case comes within a cumulative context of harsh rulings against Ghannouchi, whose total sentences have reached 48 years’ imprisonment, in a trajectory devoid of any legal logic relating to proportionality or criminal justice. It reflects a clear political will to exclude a central opposition figure from public life, through the weaponisation of the judiciary rather than the ballot box.
The multiplicity of cases, the rapid succession of verdicts, the absence of safeguards, and the alignment of judicial proceedings with the political context are all compelling indicators of the politicisation of justice and the transformation of courts into tools for entrenching one-man rule, in explicit contradiction with the most basic principles of judicial independence. Under international legal standards, the judiciary must be neutral and independent from the executive authority, not its arm for eliminating opponents.
Rached Ghannouchi, 84, has been held in Mornaguia Prison since April 2023, under detention conditions that themselves raise legal and humanitarian concerns, particularly given his age and health. This comes alongside the issuance of lengthy prison sentences, a travel ban, and the freezing of his assets—sanctions that go beyond penal measures to constitute comprehensive political punishment.
What is unfolding in Tunisia represents a clear breach of the state’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, the publicity of proceedings, the independence of judges, and non-discrimination between litigants. This trajectory also constitutes a systematic undermining of the principle of the rule of law, replacing it with a logic of force and political retribution.
