The Tunisian Court of Appeal approved a preliminary ruling of 3 years imprisonment against the head of the Ennahda Movement, Rashid Ghannouchi, speaker of the dissolved Parliament in the “lobbying case”.
The official Tunisian News Agency quoted court spokesman Habib Tarkhani as saying that the Court of Appeals approved a previous preliminary ruling issued months ago against the Ennahdha movement and its president, Ghannouchi, who is currently imprisoned, and in absentia against his brother-in-law, Rafik Abdel Salam, former Foreign Minister.
The defendants denied all charges, including receiving foreign funding to promote their campaigns in the 2019 elections. Such fabricated charges have often been used by the Tunisian regime against its opponents as a pretext to arrest them.
On April 17, 2023, security forces arrested Ghannouchi after raiding his house. The court of first instance then ordered his detention for “issuing statements inciting against state security”. In these statements, Ghannouchi warned against a civil war that could erupt due to the current systems’ deviation from the democratic path, dissolving of the government and the Parliament, and controlling all powers in Tunisia.
Since July 25, 2022, Tunisia has been witnessing a severe political crisis, as President Kais Saied took arbitrary measures including freezing the Parliament, lifting impunity of its MPs, issuing legislation by presidential decrees, heading the Public Prosecution, and dismissing the Prime Minister; for him to assume executive authority powers with the assistance of a government.
Following the announcement of these exceptional measures; former officials, MPs, judges, jurists, journalists, and media organisations in Tunisia have been subjected to security restrictions, persecution, arrests, and judicial prosecutions.
