Tunisian presidential hopeful Ayachi Zammel has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after conviction on charges relating to the falsification of voters’ signatures to endorse his candidacy, his lawyer told The National on Tuesday.
He is one of only two candidates permitted to stand against incumbent President Kais Saied, who critics accuse of intimidation. Three other high-profile opposition figures have been barred from running.
Mr Zammel, head of the opposition Azimoun party, has been held since last month on charges of falsifying paperwork, accusations he described as manufactured by Mr Saied's government. Mr Zammel has been allowed to continue to stand in the election while detained.
Lawyer Ramzi Jebabli said his client was found guilty on four election fraud charges and this was the third prison sentence imposed on Mr Zammel in a matter of weeks.
“These are harsh and vindictive sentences that come as a reaction to the popular consensus that Ayachi Zammel is the candidate who has the better chances in these upcoming elections,” he said.
The lawyer, who is also Mr Zammel's presidential campaign manager, said he will be appealing the ruling, which does not affect his candidacy until the ruling is final. A date for the appeal has not yet been set, but could take up to a month.
“These are mere initial rulings not final ones, he remains a candidate and we have high confidence about it,” Mr Jebabli said. He added they are confident the decision will be overturned due to its “retaliatory nature”.
Sami Smadhi, spokesman for the Criminal Division of Tunis 2 First Instance Court, told local radio Mosaique that Tuesday’s rulings also include banning Mr Zammel from casting a vote in the upcoming presidential election. The court has postponed a review of five more similar cases raised against him.
The Jendouba governorate First Instance Court sentenced Mr Zammel to 20 months in prison two weeks ago over similar election fraud charges in another case. In total, he has been sentenced to 13 years and eight months.
Tunisia’s electoral law does not prohibit someone in jail from running for president as long as there were are not final rulings in criminal cases brought against them by the time of the announcement of the list of candidates.
Mohamed Tlili Mansri, a spokesman for Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), told state-owned news agency TAP last month that Mr Zammel will remain in the race regardless of the prison sentence and that the candidate list cannot be changed by any judicial rulings.
With only a few days before more than nine million Tunisian voters are expected to head to polls on Sunday and almost all of the Tunisian president's political opponents currently behind bars, many are disillusioned with the fairness of the presidential race.
Last week, the Tunisian parliament passed a bill to change the country’s electoral law and strip the Administrative Court's ability to adjudicate electoral disputes, after the court ruled three presidential candidates in the October 6 poll should be reinstated. The court has found itself in the middle of an unprecedented legal struggle with the electoral authority, who refused to implement its decisions.
MPs accused the court’s judges of attempting to cause the failure of the presidential race and of harming “national sovereignty”.
The court at the time warned that the ISIE’s refusal to implement its decisions could harm the transparency and integrity of the election process, which is already under scrutiny by rights organisations.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
