https://arab.news/cgs3m
- Defense lawyer Yosr Hamid said her client had received an additional three-year sentence of “administrative supervision”
- Souab was arrested in April following criticism of the legal process in a trial of prominent figures
TUNIS: A Tunisian court on Friday jailed prominent lawyer Ahmed Souab for five years on anti-terror charges, his defense counsel said — the latest case in a crackdown on opposition figures in the North African country.
Defense lawyer Yosr Hamid said her client had received an additional three-year sentence of “administrative supervision” after a trial lasting just seven minutes.
Hundreds of opposition figures, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists and humanitarian workers in Tunisia are being prosecuted for “conspiracy” or in connection with a “fake news” decree by authorities.
That legislation, Decree Law 54, has been criticized by rights activists, who are concerned over its broad interpretation by some courts.
Souab was arrested in April following criticism of the legal process in a trial of prominent figures, including opposition leaders.
The 68-year-old former magistrate was not allowed to appear in court, declining to testify via video-link, according to Hamid.
His legal team refused to enter a plea under the conditions.
Souab faced a number of charges related to anti-terrorism legislation and the presidential decree on false information.
His defense team issued a statement condemning “a scandalous verdict after a seven-minute joke of a trial” and said it would “work for its annulment by all legal means.”
His team also called on “civil society to express their rejection of the manipulation of justice and to defend the independence of the judiciary.”
The defense lawyer, Hamid, told AFP earlier Friday that there was a “lack of fundamental grounds for a fair trial” and that the decision to sentence after a one-day trial set an unwelcome precedent.
Mongi Souab, the defendant’s brother, said authorities “prevented family members from entering” the court, criticizing the brevity of the trial.
Souab was arrested after criticizing the trial process for around 40 prominent figures, including opposition leaders, in a case related to “conspiracy against state security.”
He was one of the principal defense lawyers.
After a trial involving just three hearings, without closing arguments or defense pleas, Souab had accused authorities of putting “a knife to the throat of the judge who was to deliver the verdict.”
He mimicked the gesture, captured in a video of a rally in which he participated.
Heavy prison sentences of up to 74 years were handed down to those accused in the “conspiracy” mega-trial. The appeal related to that trial is scheduled to take place on November 17.
Several dozen people demonstrated outside the court on Friday, brandishing photos of Souab and chanting that the country was “under repression and tyranny.”
Several Tunisian and foreign NGOs have decried a rollback of rights and freedoms since President Kais Saied seized full powers in 2021 in what critics have called a coup.