A Tunisian court handed jail terms ranging from 13 to 66 years to 40 opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiring against state security, Tunisia's state news agency TAP reported on Saturday.
Businessman Kamel Ltaif was sentenced to 66 years and opposition politician Khyam Turki received a 48-year term, defence lawyer Abdessatar Massoudi, told Reuters news agency.
The court also jailed prominent opposition figures including Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawahar Ben Mbrak and Ridha Belhaj to 18 years in prison. They have been in custody since being detained in 2023.
"We are not surprised by these unjust and vengeful verdicts that seek to silence the voices of these opposition figures," Chaouachi's son, Youssef, told Reuters.
Forty people were being prosecuted in the trial that started in March. More than 20 have fled abroad since being charged.
"I have never witnessed a trial like this. It's a farce, the rulings are ready, and what is happening is scandalous and shameful," said defence lawyer Ahmed Souab on Friday before the ruling.
Government opponents say the case has been fabricated and has become a symbol of President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule.
Challenge
Rights groups say Saied has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree. The 67-year-old suspended the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges in 2022.
Tunisian prosecuting authorities say the defendants, who also include former head of intelligence Kamel Guizani, tried to destabilise the country and overthrow Saied.
The accused say they were preparing an initiative aimed at uniting the fragmented opposition parties.
In 2023, Saied the politicians were traitors and terrorists and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.
In a separate case in February, Rached Ghannouchi, the 83-year-old leader of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for plotting against state security.
The United Nations urged Tunisian authorities in February 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's request. "Tunisia can give lessons to those who think they are in a position to make statements," it said.
(With newswires)
