Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi has been handed, on July 09, a 14-year prison sentence for allegedly conspiring against State security, intensifying concerns about growing political repression under President Kais Saied.
Ghannouchi, aged 84 and leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, was among 18 individuals sentenced on Tuesday. His legal team rejected the verdict, citing violations of fair trial standards. Ghannouchi, who has been imprisoned since 2023, has now received cumulative sentences exceeding 20 years, including charges related to money laundering.
A towering figure in Tunisia’s post-revolution politics, Ghannouchi co-founded Ennahda and served as parliamentary speaker before Saied’s 2021 power grab. His latest sentence comes alongside stiff penalties for other figures, including his children, Mouadh and Tasnim, who received 35-year sentences in absentia, and former Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem Bouchlaka. Rights organizations have denounced the string of convictions as part of a sweeping campaign against critics of the Saied administration, with accusations of using the judiciary as a political weapon.
Since suspending parliament in 2021 and ruling by decree, President Saied has overseen an escalating clampdown on dissent. Journalists, activists, lawyers, and opposition leaders have all been targeted, raising alarm among both local and international observers. While the president maintains his measures are necessary to eliminate entrenched corruption and disorder, critics argue Tunisia is veering sharply away from the democratic aspirations of the 2011 Arab Spring that once positioned it as a model of regional reform.