Tunisian opposition figures get prison sentences
of 13 to 66 years
Prominent politicians, businessmen and lawyers are among those that have been sentenced to decades in prison by a Tunisian court on charges of conspiring against state security, state media said Saturday, as part of a mass trial against opposition figures and vocal critics of President Kais Saied's administration.
A Tunisian court handed jail terms of 13 to 66 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiring against state security, the state news agency TAP reported on Saturday, citing a judicial official.
The opposition says the charges were fabricated and the trial a symbol of President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule.
The state news agency did not provide further details about the sentences.
Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as lawyer Ridha Belhaj and activist Chaima Issa, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars, defence lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi told AFP.
Activists Khayam Turki was handed a 48-year term while businessman Kamel Eltaief received the harshest penalty of 66 years in prison, added the lawyer.
Forty people, including high-profile politicians, businessmen and journalists, were being prosecuted in the case on charges of "plotting against state security" and "belonging to a terrorist group". More than 20 have fled abroad since being charged.
Some of the opposition defendants – including Chebbi, Ben Mbarek, Belhaj, Turki, Ghazi Chaouachi and Abdelhamid Jlassi – have been in custody since being detained in 2023.
"In my entire life, I have never witnessed a trial like this. It's a farce, the rulings are ready, and what is happening is scandalous and shameful," said lawyer Ahmed Souab, who represents the defendants, on Friday before the ruling was handed down.
Authorities say the defendants, who include former officials and former head of intelligence, Kamel Guizani, tried to destabilise the country and overthrow Saied.
"This authoritarian regime has nothing to offer Tunisians except more repression," the leader of the opposition Workers' Party, Hamma Hammami, said.
Saied rejects accusations that he is a dictator and says he is fighting chaos and corruption that is rampant among the political elite.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
Trials start for 189 arrested for protesting the government in Turkey
April 19 (UPI) -- Trials started in İstanbul for 189 people, including students, journalists and lawyers, for their involvement in protests in March against the Turkish government spurred on by the arrest of the city's mayor.
The Istanbul prosecutor's office said it plans to put 819 people on trial in 20 criminal investigations after police detained nearly 2,000 people in the protests between March 19 to 26, with the first mass trials starting Friday.
The opposition Republican People's Party, which organized the events, said (more) than 2.2 million people demonstrated in support of the mayor of Turkey's largest city, the BBC reported.
Ekrem İmamoglu, İstanbul's mayor and opposition candidate to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was arrested on March 19 of corruption charges. İmamoglu wants to run for president in 2028 against Erdoğan.
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Imamoglu and his party said the charges against him are politically motivated, as the ruling Justice and Development Party has governed Turkey since 2002, with Erdogan as prime minister and then president since 2003.
Of the arrests, 650 were accused of attending peaceful protests on March 27 after the ban ended. Protests have continued this month.
Arrested protesters have been accused of taking part in illegal protests and failing to obey orders to disperse. Video footage verified by Human Rights Watch shows the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to control the demonstrators.
Among the arrests, 107 are charged only with participating in unauthorized demonstrations and failure to disperse. Other offenses include carrying a weapon, covering their faces to hide their identity and incitement to commit a crime. There are also eight journalists on trial.
All but about 50 students remain in detention, according to information provided by Parents Solidarity Network to BBC Turkish.
The government has banned public gatherings and penalties for doing so range from six months to five years in prison, according to Human Rights Watch.
"Given the glaring absence of evidence, it is hard not to conclude that the intended purpose of these rushed trials is to send a warning against exercising the rights to peaceful protest or free expression," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The prosecutor should be calling for these cases to be dropped unless there is direct and substantive evidence that particular individuals committed specific crimes."
Supporters, including family members, journalists, university lecturers and lawmakers from the opposition party, appeared in two courtrooms in the mass hearings.
"We have no fear, we are not the ones who should be afraid," a second-year student from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul told the BBC.
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