Ghannouchi sentenced to three years in prison in ‘foreign funding’ case

The head of Ennahda movement in Tunisia has been sentenced to three years in prison in the so-called “foreign funding” or “lobbying” case. Rached Ghannouchi was sentenced along with senior Ennahda official Rafik Abdel Salam, his son-in-law.

The media office at the Court of First Instance in the capital confirmed that the Chamber of the Economic and Financial Judicial Pole issued “a valid preliminary ruling” in Ghannouchi’s presence. The ruling against Abdel Salam was issued in absentia.

Ghannouchi faces other charges related to “glorifying terrorism” and “conspiring against state security”, both of which are denied. The movement accuses President Kais Saied of using the judiciary to suppress his political opponents.

READ: Ennahda secretary-general arrested ‘without judicial permission,’ Tunisian group says

Ghannouchi’s media advisor, Maher Al-Madhyoub, called on President Kais Saied in March to take advantage of the holy month of Ramadan and turn a new page with the opposition by releasing Ennahda’s leader and other political detainees, and accepting political dialogue to overcome the ongoing crisis in the country.

Ennahda announced on Saturday evening that security forces had arrested its member Lajmi Lourimi and some of his companions in Manouba Province, near the capital, without formal accusations or due process.

“Detaining the former MP and Ennahda Secretary-General,” Al-Madhyoub told Al-Quds Al-Arabi, “is another step taken by Kais Saied to prevent any free spirit or movement, or the men and women of the National Salvation Front, from influencing events, or thinking about presenting a Democratic candidate for the possible presidential election in light of a wave of injustice, arbitrary arrests and malicious and retaliatory trials.”

Al-Madhyoub pointed out that Lourimi is “a strong man and a fighter having spent more than 16 years in solitary confinement and being tortured in the prisons of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He did not submit, did not surrender, and did not change his national principles and values in promoting freedom and democracy.”

The Tunisian political class denounced Lourimi’s arrest and called it an attempt by Saied to “target advocates of peaceful dialogue” in the country.

READ: Tunisia: Judicial measures against presidential candidate Mekki