{"id":133903,"date":"2026-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/archives\/133903"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:00:00","slug":"tunisia-court-sentences-professor-rached-ghannouchi-and-several-ennahda-leaders-to-20-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/archives\/133903","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia: Court Sentences Professor Rached Ghannouchi and Several Ennahda Leaders to 20 Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tunisia: Court
\nSentences Professor Rached Ghannouchi and Several Ennahda Leaders to 20 Years
\nin Prison<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

A Tunisian court on Tuesday
\nevening sentenced Ennahda Movement leader Professor Rached Ghannouchi to 20
\nyears in prison on charges of conspiring against state security, in the case
\nwidely known in the media as the \u201cRamadan Evening Conversation<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The same sentence was handed down
\nto senior party figures Youssef Nouri and Ahmed Al-Mashriqi.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, three other senior
\nfigures currently abroad received 20-year prison sentences with immediate
\nenforcement. They include Ghannouchi\u2019s son-in-law and former Foreign Minister
\nRafik Abdessalam, along with opposition figures Maher Ziad, a former member of
\nparliament, and blogger Mohamed Samti<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The court also sentenced six
\ndefendants, who were released pending trial, to three years in prison. Among
\nthem are two former Ennahda leaders and ex-MPs Mohamed Al-Qomani and Belkacem
\nHassan, according to the same source<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cRamadan Evening
\nConversation\u201d case dates back to February 2023, when opposition politicians,
\nlawyers, civil society activists, and business figures were arrested on charges
\nof \u201cattempting to undermine public order and destabilize state security,\u201d \u201ccollusion
\nwith foreign parties,\u201d and \u201cincitement to chaos or rebellion.\u201d The accused deny
\nall allegations<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

On April 17, 2023, security
\nforces raided the home of Professor Rached Ghannouchi (84), former Speaker of
\nParliament, and arrested him. A lower court later ordered his detention on
\ncharges of making statements \u201cinciting chaos and rebellion<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The case became known in the
\nmedia as the \u201cEvening Conversation\u201d after Ghannouchi and others made remarks
\nduring a Ramadan gathering organized in 2023 by the National Salvation Front
\nopposition coalition in solidarity with political detainees<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Ghannouchi has also been
\nsentenced in other cases, including an increased sentence of 20 years in the
\n\u201cConspiracy against State Security 2\u201d case, a three-year sentence in a \u201cforeign
\nfunding\u201d case, and a two-year prison term over donating an international prize
\nhe received in 2016 to the Red Crescent Association<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Rached Ghannouchi, who
\nhas been in detention since April 2023, refuses to attend court hearings,
\ndescribing them as \u201cpolitical settling of scores,\u201d while authorities insist
\nthat the judiciary is independent and does not interfere in its proceedings<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Tunisian authorities state that
\nall detainees are being prosecuted on criminal charges such as \u201cconspiring
\nagainst state security\u201d or \u201ccorruption,\u201d denying the existence of political
\nprisoners. Opposition groups and human rights organizations, however, argue
\nthat the cases are political in nature and are being used to sideline political
\nopponents<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

(Source: Agencies)<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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Tunisia: Court Sentences Professor Rached Ghannouchi and Several Ennahda Leaders to 20 Years in Prison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[414],"tags":[893],"class_list":["post-133903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-news-en","tag-miscellaneous-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}