Tunisia resumes trial of opposition figures
TUNIS
The trial of dozens of Tunisian opposition figures resumed on April 11 under tight security, with six detained defendants on hunger strike after they were barred from attending court in person.
Around 40 high-profile defendants activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures are on trial, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.
Saied, elected in 2019 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 defendants 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 the April 11 hearing remotely.
Six of the defendants, 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.
According to an AFP journalist, security was tight at the entrance to the courtroom in the Tunisian capital.
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 defense 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."
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 United Nations 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."
