TUNIS: The appeal trial of dozens of Tunisian public and opposition figures, jailed on charges of plotting against the state, resumed on Thursday, said an AFP journalist in the courtroom.
Nearly 40 defendants were sentenced to prison in April on charges of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group.”
The charges were mainly based on accusations of meeting with foreign diplomats, local media reported.
Rights groups have warned of a sharp decline in civil liberties in Tunisia since a sweeping power grab by President Kais Saied in 2021.
Among the defendants were Jawhar Ben Mbarek, co-founder of a leading opposition coalition, party leaders Issam Chebbi and Ghazi Chaouachi, and businessman Kamel Ltaief, who are all imprisoned.
“Jawhar is on a hunger strike, he risks dying, and all he is asking is to appear before you in person,” said Ben Mbarek’s sister and lawyer Dalila Msaddek, representing her brother and other defendants.
“All the detainees want is to defend themselves directly before you.”
The presiding judge said on Thursday that “most refused to appear,” with the defendants’ lawyers declining they be heard by videoconference and calling for them to appear in court instead.
One of the detained defendants who agreed to appear remotely, former Islamist-conservative MP Sayed Ferjani, complained he was unable to verify if his lawyer was present.
“This case is political and a clear injustice, it’s an imaginary trial,” he said.
Some defendants are abroad and being tried in absentia, including feminist Bochra BelHajj Hmida and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.
Outside the court in Tunis, more than a dozen people gathered to demand the defendants’ release.
Poet and opposition figure Chaima Issa held up a large photograph of Ben Mbarek while Msaddek joined the demonstrations, saying her brother was “on the verge of no return” after a one-month hunger strike.
Most of those detained were arrested in a government crackdown on the opposition in 2023, after Saied labelled them “terrorists.”
In April the defendants were handed harsh prison terms of up to 66 years, without defense arguments being heard.
After that ruling Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced “violations of the law... raising serious concerns about political motivations.”
Human Rights Watch also recently called for “the annulment of the unjust sentences,” denouncing “unfounded accusations.”
In a separate case, lawyer and columnist Sonia Dahmani was to be released from prison on Thursday, one of her lawyers Sami Ben Ghazi told AFP.
She will be released after a “decision of the Ministry of Justice,” several media outlets reported, without providing details.
The 60-year-old has been a vocal critic of Saied and was arrested in May 2024 and faced charges in several cases over her criticism of racism in Tunisia.