Tunisia: Ennahdha Vice-President Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison

A Tunisian court has sentenced Mondher Ounissi, vice-president of the Ennahdha movement, to nine years in prison in a first-instance ruling on terrorism-related charges. Several other movement leaders remain imprisoned on similar charges.

The state-run Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) news agency reported on Tuesday evening, citing an unnamed judicial source, that the Tunis Court of First Instance had sentenced Ounissi to nine years in prison and journalist Zied El Heni to four years, with immediate enforcement of both sentences.

The source said the ruling, which can be appealed, concerned “the commission of a terrorist offence, or the possibility of its commission”, as well as contacts with an unspecified foreign state to harm the country.

Nine fugitives handed 25-year sentences

The same source said the court had also imposed immediately enforceable 25-year prison sentences on nine defendants who remain at large: Ennahdha officials Tahar Boubehri, Fathi Ayadi, Ahmed Gaaloul and Ridha Idriss; former Foreign Minister Rafik Bouchlaka; journalists Chahrazed Akacha and Maher Zaid; blogger Mohamed Samti; and Mouadh Kheriji, the son of Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi.

They were accused of forming an organisation linked to terrorist offences and establishing contacts with agents of a foreign state to harm the country.

Ennahdha has previously described prosecutions against its leaders as “politically motivated”. Tunisian authorities maintain that the judiciary is independent and deny that anyone is detained because of their political views.

Ounissi detained since September 2023

On September 20, 2023, Tunisia’s judiciary ordered Ounissi’s detention on charges of “conspiring against state security”. Earlier that month, on September 5, Ennahdha said in a statement that security forces had arrested him and taken him to an undisclosed location.

Ounissi, 59, is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis. He joined the movement in 1984 and was elected to its Shura Council at the party’s tenth congress in 2016.

Since February 2023, Tunisia has seen a wave of arrests involving journalists, activists, judges, business figures and politicians. Those arrested include Ghannouchi and several senior Ennahdha officials, among them Ali Larayedh, Noureddine Bhiri and Sayed Ferjani. The authorities reiterate that the judiciary is independent and say they do not interfere in its work.

Last week, Ennahdha official Abdelkarim Harouni was released after serving his sentence in a financial corruption case. Separately, a court upheld a seven-year prison sentence against businessman Mohamed Frikha and six-year sentences against former officials at a state-owned petroleum company. Fines were also imposed on all defendants in the case.