Marking the second anniversary of the arrest of Tunisia’s prominent opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, an international committee formed last year to raise awareness about his imprisonment says he is being held “unjustly” and on “trumped-up charges”.
The International Committee for Solidarity with Rached Ghannouchi called for the immediate release of the imprisoned Ennahdha party leader and former speaker of Tunisia’s parliament.
In a statement on Thursday, it said that more than 15 cases have been brought against Ghannouchi, and “several unjust convictions and sentences” have been issued.
The most recent of these was a 22-year prison sentence issued in February on charges that included plotting against state security – a case “to which he has no connection”, the committee said.
Earlier this year, Ghannouchi was also sentenced to three years for accusations that his party received foreign contributions.
The 83-year-old, who has been the main rival of Tunisian President Kais Saied, was arrested in April 2023 and sentenced to one year in prison on charges of incitement.
He has been a vocal critic of Saied, and became the highest-profile figure to be arrested in the continuing consolidation of power by the president who was elected in 2019 and has overseen a wave of repression and legal reforms that have expanded his rule.
“These unjust trials and sentences take place within the context of a widespread repressive campaign led by Kais Saied’s regime, which is targeting opposition voices from all backgrounds, repressing organised action in all its forms, controlling the media and civil society, and silencing critical voices,” the committee said in its statement.
It said Saied’s government has to “exploit the judiciary as a tool for settling political scores”.
‘An era of political prisoners’
The committee’s statement comes just days after United States-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Tunisian government to halt its crackdown on opposition and free all detainees.
The rights group said arbitrary detention was being used to eliminate dissent in Tunisia amid a trial of prominent opposition figures – including Ghannouchi – on conspiracy charges.
In a report released Wednesday, HRW reinforced opposition leaders’ concern over what they call the authoritarian rule of Saied since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree.
The opposition described Saied’s move as a coup. He has denied such accusations, professing he would not become a dictator but rather is trying to rescue the North African country from political chaos and rampant corruption.
The report said Tunis had turned arbitrary detention into a cornerstone of repressive policy.
“Saied’s government has returned the country to an era of political prisoners, robbing Tunisians of hard-won civil liberties,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at HRW.
Since 2023, authorities have arrested dozens of prominent political opposition figures as well as journalists, activists and lawyers in a crackdown critics say has undermined the democracy gained in the 2011 Arab Spring popular uprising.
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