By Tarek Amara
TUNIS, Feb 3 (Reuters) – A Tunisian appeal court on Tuesday upheld and increased lengthy prison sentences on high-profile politicians, including opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi and former security officials, as part of a crackdown on dissent.
Among those sentenced on charges of conspiring against the state in the mass trial were Nadia Akacha, the former chief of staff to President Kais Saied.
Akacha, who was sentenced in absentia after fleeing abroad, received a 35-year jail term, TAP state news agency said.
Rached Ghannouchi, 84, veteran head of the Islamist-leaning Ennahda party, was handed an increased 20-year prison sentence, up from the previous 14-year term.
Ghannouchi, who was speaker of the elected parliament dissolved by Saied in 2021, has been in prison since 2023. With this new sentence, the total sentences against him on several charges rise to 50 years.
ACCUSED SAY CHARGES ARE FABRICATED
A total of 21 were charged in the conspiracy case, with 10 already in custody and 11 having fled the country.
The court upheld 35-year sentences against former intelligence chief Kamel Guizani, former foreign minister Rafik Abdessalem, and Mouadh Ghannouchi, the son of Rached Ghannouchi. All three are outside the country.
The accused deny the charges, arguing that the case has been politically fabricated to silence Saied’s opponents.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied, have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers in 2021.
Saied dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree, then dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges, a move that opposition figures called a coup which undermined the nascent democracy that in 2011 sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.
Saied rejects the accusations and says his steps are legal and aim to end years of chaos and corruption within the political elite.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by David Holmes)
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