Former Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh was sentenced to 34 years in prison on Friday, convicted of abetting the departure of extremist fighters to Syria for the past decade, his lawyer told Reuters. The senior figure in the opposition Ennahda party has strongly denied the accusation, saying it was “politically motivated”.
The Tunisian state news agency said that a judicial official has handed down sentences of between 18 to 36 years, and that they apply to eight officials. The court did not name those convicted alongside Mr Larayedh.
“I was neither sympathetic, nor complicit, nor neutral, nor lenient towards violence, terrorism,” Mr Larayedh told the judge on Friday, rejecting what he and his Ennahda party have called a politically motivated prosecution.
The former PM, 69, took office between 2013 to 2014, and was leader of the Islamist party Ennahda, which briefly governed Tunisia following a popular uprising in 2011 that sparked the Arab Spring. He is a critic of current Tunisian President Kais Saied.
Mr Larayedh has been in detention since 2022.
“I am not a criminal … I am a victim in this case,” he wrote in a letter addressed to the Tunis prosecutor's office on April 18.
Ennahda denies the charges linked to terrorism, and claims this case is part of a crackdown on dissent following Mr Saied’s seizure of broad powers in 2021, when he dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree.
The sentences is the latest in a series of prosecutions against people critical of Mr Saied.
Last week, lawyer Ahmed Souab, a critic of Mr Saied, was detained alongside other opposition leaders, businessmen, and media figures on charges of conspiracy.
Human rights groups have described last week sentences and detention of Mr Souab as a dangerous escalation of the repression of the opposition.
The government rejects claims of political interference, and maintains that Tunisia’s judiciary is independent.
The UN said about 5,500 Tunisians fought with extremist groups including ISIS in Iraq, Syria and Libya between 2011 and 2016.
