Army court docket arms Issa one-year suspended sentence for insulting the president, inciting troopers to disobey orders.
A distinguished Tunisian opposition activist has been handed a one-year suspended jail sentence for insulting the president, her lawyer says.
Chaima Issa was convicted by a navy court docket on Wednesday of inciting troopers to disobey orders and insulting President Kais Saied, Islem Hamza mentioned. Issa denies wrongdoing.
The fees relate to feedback Issa made accusing Saied of making an attempt to create “tyranny”, saying parliamentary elections in 2022 have been ineffective and calling on the military to not be concerned.
Issa’s sentence is extensively seen by Tunisia’s opposition as a step to silence Saied’s critics.
The president, who was democratically elected in October 2019, launched a power grab in July 2021, ousting the previous parliament and prime minister and giving himself sweeping emergency powers. He has since pushed via a brand new structure to weaken parliament and cracked down on his political opponents.
Issa herself was amongst 20 political leaders detained in February on suspicion of “plotting against state security”. She was launched in July pending her trial.
Rights teams have urged authorities to free the opposite political detainees, together with former parliament speaker and chief of the Ennahdha occasion Rached Ghannouchi.
Saied has rejected such calls, describing the detainees as “terrorists” and “traitors” and warning that judges who launch them could be abetting their crimes.
Issa, a member of the Nationwide Salvation Entrance coalition, mentioned after a court docket listening to on Tuesday that Saied’s opponents have been being handled like “criminals”.
“We are not criminals,” she mentioned. “We are not plotters. We are not traitors. We are politicians, opponents of the coup of July 25, 2021.”
‘Opinion trials must end’
Rights activists slammed Issa’s conviction and the truth that she was tried underneath a navy court docket.
“She should have never been prosecuted for expressing her opinions nor tried by a military court,” Salsabil Chellali of Human Rights Watch mentioned on X, previously Twitter.
En #Tunisie, la militante Chaima Issa vient d’être condamnée à un an de jail avec sursis par un tribunal militaire pour avoir critiqué le président Kais Saied. Elle n’aurait jamais dû être poursuivie pour avoir exprimé ses opinions, ni jugée par un tribunal militaire @hrw_fr https://t.co/Yc8lJ8zzS5
— Salsabil Chellali (@SaChellali) December 13, 2023
Samir Dilou, a senior official within the Nationwide Salvation Entrance and a lawyer for Issa, mentioned: “The military court does not have the authority to try opponents. Opinion trials must end.”
“A country in which there was a revolution against injustice would not have the right to put opponents on trial for their ideas and opinions,” Dilou mentioned.
