A Tunisian court sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh to 34 years in prison on Friday, accusing him of facilitating the departure of jihadists to Syria over the past decade.
Ali Larayedh © TNS
A Tunisian court sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh to 34 years in prison on Friday, accusing him of facilitating the departure of jihadists to Syria over the past decade.
The verdict, confirmed by his lawyer to Reuters, marks a significant escalation in Tunisia’s ongoing political crackdown.
Larayedh, who led the government from 2013 to 2014, is a senior member of the opposition Ennahda party—an Islamist political force that has long stood in opposition to President Kais Saied. The party strongly denies the terrorism-related charges, calling the trial politically motivated.
“I was neither sympathetic, nor complicit, nor neutral, nor lenient toward violence, terrorism,” Larayedh reportedly told the court during the hearing. He has been held in pretrial detention since 2022.
The court ruling follows a wave of prosecutions targeting opposition figures, including the recent detention of lawyer Ahmed Souab and other notable political, media, and business figures. Tunisia’s state news agency TAP reported that sentences were issued for eight individuals, ranging from 18 to 36 years.
Human rights groups have condemned these developments as part of a dangerous clampdown on dissent, accusing President Saied’s government of weaponizing the judiciary. The administration has denied these accusations, asserting that the judiciary remains independent.
Since the 2011 revolution, thousands of Tunisians are believed to have joined jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Critics have long accused Ennahda, which held power during much of that period, of turning a blind eye to these departures—an allegation the party continues to refute.
The verdict against Larayedh comes amid a broader erosion of democratic norms in Tunisia, where President Saied dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree in 2021.
By Hassan Nedjar
In a significant diplomatic milestone, Morocco has secured a major victory on the international stage with the United Nations Security Council endorsing its autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a move widely seen as a major setback for Algeria, which has long supported the separatist Polisario Front.
In a landmark diplomatic victory for Morocco and a stinging setback for Algeria, the United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution endorsing autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the most viable path toward resolving the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara.
Tunisian authorities on Friday ordered the suspension of the Nawaat journalists' group, which runs one of the country’s leading independent investigative media outlets, in a widening crackdown on free speech and civil society.
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