April 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A court of first instance in Tunisia sentenced Tunisian journalist Mohamed Boughalleb to six months in prison this Wednesday for insulting a public official, which is why he was arrested at the end of March, and which comes just one day after another room charged prominent opponents with terrorism and conspiracy.
The case of Boughalleb, who must serve the sentence immediately, is part of a situation of persecution against journalists critical of the country's president, Kais Saied, as published by the Tunisian news portal Kapitalis.
On Tuesday, another lower court charged several opposition leaders — including Republican Party leader Issam Chebbi, Democratic Current leader Ghazi Chauachi, and Abdelhamid Jelassi, one of Ennahda's leaders — for a series of charges including conspiracy and terrorism against the State, which carry the death penalty.
Saied assumed additional powers in 2021 when he closed the elected Parliament, dominated by the Islamic Ennahda formation, and went on to govern by decree before assuming authority over the judiciary, a move for which he assumed all state powers and considered by his critics like a self-coup d'état.
The opposition, mostly grouped around the National Salvation Front (FSN), has denounced the president's authoritarian drift for more than two years and has demanded his resignation, especially given the wave of arrests of opponents, activists and journalists, as well as the low participation rates in the constitutional referendum and the elections held since then in Tunisia.
