Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki sentenced to 4 years in absentia
A Tunis court of first instance has issued a first instance verdict in absentia against former Tunisian president Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, sentencing him to “four years in prison, with immediate effect”, Tunisia-Africa News Agency reported.
In a statement published yesterday, the Tunis Liaison Office said: “Marzouki was tried on charges of assaulting the external security of the state, by contacting the agents of a foreign state with the purpose, or the results, of harming the diplomatic situation of the Tunisian country”.
On the other hand, Marzouki once again insulted the Tunisian judiciary and questioned its integrity, considering that his sentence of 4 years imprisonment “was issued by a miserable judge, and on the orders of an illegitimate president”.
In a Facebook post, Marzouki said: “I was tried more than once under Bourguiba, I was tried more than once under Ben Ali, and now I am sentenced under Kais Saied”.
An investigation was opened on October 15; due to Marzouki’s statements to France 24 channel in which he said: “He also sought to prevent the convening of a francophone summit in the Tunisian island of Djerba at the end of this year, in response to the exceptional measures announced by Said last July”, according to the same source.
Last November, a Tunisian court issued an international arrest warrant for Marzouki, following his statements about the failure of the Francophone summit.
Commenting on the memo, Marzouki said in a statement: “This decision by the Tunisian authorities is not surprising, and it was an expected step”, he said, adding that “the arrest warrant against him from the Tunisian authorities “is a message of threat to all Tunisians”.
Since July 25, Tunisia has been suffering from a severe political crisis, with President Kais Saied starting a series of exceptional decisions; these include freezing the parliament’s powers, lifting the immunity of its deputies, abolishing the Constitutional Oversight Commission, passing legislation by presidential decree, chairing the Public Prosecution Office, and dismissing Prime Minister Hisham al-Meshishi.
