A Tunisian deputy sentenced to six months in jail for hateful comments against the late President Essebsi

Oct. 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Tunisian deputy Maher Zid, from the Islamist party Al Karama, has been sentenced to six months in prison for making hateful comments on social networks against the late Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi, a key figure in democracy in the country.

The criminal chamber of the Tunisian Court of Appeal has confirmed the sentence after a complaint was filed against him in 2018 for having criticized the then-president Essebsi on the Facebook social network, according to the Kapitalis news portal.

Zid had already been arrested twice in September 2021 after being accused in March of that same year of inciting violence against state security forces at the Tunisian airport in Carthage.

The deputy affirmed that his arrest took place by order of the military Judiciary and assured that he would turn himself in in the midst of what he described as a “coup by the regime and a violation of the Constitution.”

The current president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, approved in September 2022 a new electoral law that reduces the role of political parties in the new Parliament, which will also have fewer powers as a result of the constitutional reform approved in a referendum in July, in through opposition complaints about his actions to expand his powers in the African country.