Tunisia Prisons of the former Minister of Leadership on Terrorism charges

A court in Tunisia sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Laraid to 34 years in prison on terrorist charges.

He is the latest high -level critic of the president to be imprisoned while activists criticize the “fake trials” in the country.

The 69 -year -old is a prominent critic of President Kais Says and the leader of her famous Enad party – the largest in Parliament – which strengthens Islamic ideals.

Along with seven other people, Laraid was accused of creating a terrorist cell and helping Tunisian youth to travel abroad to join Islamic fighters in Iraq and Syria.

“I am not a criminal … I am a victim in this case,” he wrote in a letter to the court’s public prosecutor last month, according to the news agency of Agence France -Presse.

He was sentenced to Friday.

La Rayed continued to commit any violations and said that the case was of political motives.

In recent weeks, At least 40 critics of the President of Tunisia has been sent to prison Including diplomats, lawyers and journalists.

Rights groups say that these trials shed light on Saal’s authoritarian control over the judiciary, after the parliament was dissolved in 2021 and their ruling.

Since his election for the first time six years ago, the former law professor re -written the constitution to enhance his powers.

Laarayedh was arrested three years ago and the activists called for his release –Including Human Rights WatchHe said that the case seemed to be “another example of President Sis authorities, who are trying to silence the leaders of the Enada party and other opponents by connecting them as terrorists.”

The rule of Enda was a North African nation for a short time after a popular uprising called the Arab Spring.

The protest movement arose in Tunisia – where a vegetable seller named Mohamed Bouzizi shot himself in the despair of government corruption – and the mass demonstrations soon spread across the wider region in 2011.

However, many Tunisians say that the democratic gains have been lost since then, noting the president’s authoritarian fist of power.

However, President Saal refused criticism from inside and outside the country, saying that he is fighting “traitors” and suffering from “flagrant foreign interference.”