Trial of Tunisian opposition figures resumes, six on hunger strike

The trial of dozens of Tunisian opposition figures resumed on Tuesday under tight security, with six detained defendants on a hunger strike after they were barred from attending court in person.

Foreign diplomats were in court to monitor the trial of around 40 high-profile accused. They include activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.

Saied, elected after Tunisia emerged as the only democracy from the Arab Spring, staged a sweeping power grab in 2021. Rights groups have since raised concerns over a rollback on freedoms.

The accused face charges including “plotting against the state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to lawyers, which could entail hefty sentences and even capital punishment.

Tunisia’s judiciary had ruled when the trial opened on March 4 that the defendants would only be allowed to attend Friday’s hearing remotely.

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Six of them, including jurist Jawhar Ben Mbarek and a former leader of the Islamist party Ennahdha, Abdelhamid Jelassi, have gone on hunger strike to demand permission to attend the hearing in person, their defence team said.

“The defence asks that the hearing be suspended and the accused be brought before their lawyers,” said one of their legal counsel, Abelaziz Essid. “We cannot make our arguments under these conditions and we refuse to be false witnesses.”

According to an AFP journalist, security was tight at the entrance to the courtroom in the Tunisian capital.

NGOs denied access

Representatives of France, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and European Union attended the hearing.

Local NGOs were, however, not given access and only one relative of each accused was allowed entry.

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Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, who heads the main opposition coalition the National Salvation Front and is also named in the case, called the accusations “wild fabrications”.

The defence lawyers say that Chebbi, along with several other defendants, is accused of holding contacts deemed suspicious with foreign diplomats.

Several of the defendants were arrested in February 2023, after which Saied labelled them “terrorists”.

Others, like Chebbi, have remained free pending trial, while some have fled abroad, according to the defence committee.

Human Rights Watch has dubbed the trial a “mockery” based on “abusive charges”.

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In February, the leader of the Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, 83, was sentenced to an additional 22 years in prison for plotting against state security.

Ennahdha has been Tunisia’s main opposition party and the main rival to Saied.

The UN urged Tunisian authorities last month to bring “an end to the pattern of arrests, arbitrary detentions and imprisonment of dozens of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, activists and politicians”.

Tunisia’s foreign ministry at the time dismissed the UN statement with “astonishment” and denounced its “inaccuracies”.

“Tunisia can give lessons to those who think they are in a position to make statements,” it said.

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– By: © Agence France-Presse