Tunisia puts opposition figures on mass trial decried as ‘absurdity’

TUNIS: The trial of several prominent Tunisian opposition figures accused of national security offenses opened on Tuesday, with lawyers and relatives denouncing the case as politically motivated.

The around 40 high-profile defendants include activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.

They 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.

In the courtroom, relatives of the accused chanted “freedom” and accused the judiciary of acting on government orders.

Defense lawyer Abdelaziz Essid pleaded with the judges to end the “absurdity” of the legal case, which Human Rights Watch dubbed a “mockery of a trial” based on “abusive charges.”

The hearing was adjourned in the afternoon for the court to review requests from the defense team, an AFP journalist reported, with no immediate decision on the date for the next hearing.

The defense team’s requests included the physical presence of the detained defendants and their release from prison.

Lawyers have denounced the trial as unfair after defendants who have been in detention were not allowed to attend in person, instead following the hearing remotely.

The case has named politician and law expert Jawhar Ben Mbarek, Ennahdha leader Abdelhamid Jelassi, and National Salvation Front co-founder Issam Chebbi.

Activists Khayam Turki and Chaima Issa, businessman Kamel Eltaief, and Bochra BelHajj Hmida, a former member of parliament and human rights activist now living in France, have also been charged in the case.

Dalila Msaddek, a defense committee lawyer, told the judges she feared that “the sentences have been ready” and decided beforehand.

Speaking to AFP earlier, she described the case as “hollow” and “based on false testimony.”

Some of the defendants are accused of getting in contact with foreign parties and diplomats, according to lawyers.

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

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

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.

Defense lawyers have complained that they did not have full access to the case file.

“None of the lawyers have the complete file,” said Essid during the trial.

“You can put an end to this madness and absurdity,” he told the judges.

In a letter from his cell, Ben Mbarek called the trial a form of “judicial harassment” aimed at “the methodical elimination of critical voices,” insisting the accusations were baseless.

Lawyer Samir Dilou called in a government plot “against the opposition.”

National Salvation Front head Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, who is also named in the case, called the trial “unjust.”

He said the defendants were “figures in Tunisia known for their non-violence and respect for the law.”

“Opposing the authority in place is not a crime, it is a right,” he recently said.

Contrary to his brother Issam, he remains free while awaiting the trial’s verdict.

On Sunday, during a visit to the streets of the capital Tunis, Saied told a woman who asked him to intervene for her imprisoned sons — unrelated to the trial — that he “never intervenes” in judicial matters.

“Let this be clear to everyone,” he was heard telling her in a video posted on the presidency’s official Facebook page.

Other critics of Saied have been detained and charged in different cases, including under a law to combat “false news.”

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

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.”

Tunisia’s foreign ministry 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.