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Tunisian\u00a0authorities must release\u00a0prominent\u00a0opposition politician\u00a0Rached Ghannouchi, quash his\u00a0convictions\u00a0and end\u00a0the\u00a0politically motivated\u00a0prosecutions against him marred by\u00a0significant\u00a0due process violations, Amnesty International said today.\u00a0The organization is also urgently calling for him to receive access to\u00a0adequate\u00a0healthcare pending his release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 84-year-old leader of the Ennahdha party and former Speaker of Parliament\u00a0has been held in arbitrary detention since his arrest in April 2023 and\u00a0has been\u00a0subjected to\u00a0numerous\u00a0politically motivated prosecutions. Authorities have\u00a0initiated\u00a0at least 12 separate criminal cases against\u00a0Rached\u00a0Ghannouchi, resulting in multiple convictions and cumulative prison sentences of 107 years, in addition to a life sentence handed down on 1 June 2026 in the\u00a0\u201cSecret Apparatus\u201d\u00a0case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0latest\u00a0judgment\u00a0against Rached Ghannouchi\u00a0represents the first life sentence imposed on a major political leader since Tunisia\u2019s 2011\u00a0revolution and marks a significant escalation in the authorities\u2019 misuse of the criminal justice system against opposition figures,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Heba Morayef, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at\u00a0Amnesty International.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe successive trials and prosecutions against\u00a0him\u00a0are\u00a0emblematic of the\u00a0lengths the\u00a0authorities\u00a0are willing to go\u00a0to\u00a0in order to\u00a0suppress political dissent.\u00a0They also show how deeply politicized\u00a0the justice system has\u00a0become with\u00a0little regard\u00a0for\u00a0fair trial rights.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amnesty International\u2019s calls echo the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in Opinion No. 63\/2025, which declared\u00a0Rached\u00a0Ghannouchi\u2019s detention arbitrary under international law, citing the lack of legal basis, violations of fair trial standards, and discrimination based on political opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rached Ghannouchi\u2019s\u00a0various\u00a0convictions followed proceedings severely undermined by procedural irregularities, including denial of access to legal counsel, trials held in his absence without notification, and reliance on doctored videos, anonymous witnesses, and\u00a0unsubstantiated claims, without allowing his\u00a0defence\u00a0to challenge the evidence. His prosecutions\u00a0\u2013\u00a0ranging from speech offences for public remarks\u00a0protected by freedom of expression\u00a0to\u00a0finance offences relating to\u00a0a publicly disclosed 2016 charitable donation to the Tunisian Red Crescent\u00a0\u2013\u00a0represent a clear violation of his rights to freedom of expression, association,\u00a0fair trial\u00a0and political participation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rached\u00a0Ghannouchi\u2019s continued imprisonment\u00a0has been\u00a0further compounded by a drastic deterioration of his health.\u00a0He\u00a0suffers from Parkinson\u2019s disease, sleep apnea, and severe leg pain, which\u00a0were\u00a0exacerbated\u00a0by\u00a0being held in\u00a0unventilated prison cells during heatwaves exceeding 50\u00b0C.\u00a0He lost\u00a0consciousness twice during a legal consultation on 17 July\u00a0and\u00a0was hospitalized five times between July and August 2026, during\u00a0his hospital stays\u00a0authorities arbitrarily banned visits from his family and legal team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe case of Rached Ghannouchi illustrates how,\u00a0under President\u00a0Kais\u00a0Saied, the country has\u00a0witnessed\u00a0a severe\u00a0rollback\u00a0of\u00a0human rights,\u00a0facilitated\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0erosion\u00a0of judicial independence.\u00a0While\u00a0President Saied\u00a0makes\u00a0repeated public accusations that government critics and political opponents are \u2018traitors\u2019 and \u2018terrorists\u2019,\u00a0we have\u00a0witnessed\u00a0the judiciary\u00a0becoming\u00a0increasingly subordinate\u00a0to the executive\u2019s political interests,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Heba Morayef.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The organization reiterates that Tunisian authorities must\u00a0immediately\u00a0release\u00a0Rached\u00a0Ghannouchi,\u00a0stop\u00a0misusing the justice system to target\u00a0opposition figures, and uphold the\u00a0country\u2019s\u00a0international human rights obligations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Tunisian\u00a0authorities must release\u00a0prominent\u00a0opposition politician\u00a0Rached Ghannouchi, quash his\u00a0convictions\u00a0and end\u00a0the\u00a0politically motivated\u00a0prosecutions against him marred by\u00a0significant\u00a0due process violations,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}