MADRID 12 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zamel has been sentenced this Friday to 20 more years in prison for four cases related to the support signatures necessary to be able to run as a candidate for public office.
He has been sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for each case, but these are cumulative sentences, making it a total of 20 years in prison, according to the radio station RFI.
Zamel has been imprisoned since last September 4, which did not prevent him from being a candidate in the presidential elections of October 6, in which he obtained 7.35 percent of the vote, according to official results, which gave President Kais Saied an overwhelming victory.
Since September, he has received ten judicial sentences, all of them for alleged falsification of documents related to the signatures of the endorsements necessary to run for office. On Friday the Siliana court, in the center of the country, issued these four new sentences.
Zamel’s defense argues that all the cases could have been unified into a single case and denounces “judicial harassment.” “They are parallel processes. That is why I say it is a judicial massacre,” said lawyer Abdelsatar Mesaudi.
In total, 37 cases have been opened against Zamel, for which he could be sentenced to between 40 and 50 years in prison in total in a “political” trial that seeks to “dissuade anyone who intends to run as a candidate in the next elections.”
Ayachi Zamel, is the leader of the liberal Azimun party. He was arrested hours before the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced that it accepted his candidacy.
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