Politician Ayachi Hammami latest arrest in Tunisia opposition crackdown

Ayachi Hammami, a well-known opposition figure, has been taken into custody at his home in Tunisia in order to impose a five-year prison sentence following the upholding of dozens of the government’s political opponents’ convictions on charges of conspiracy against state security.

The court last week approved jail sentences for opposition leaders, business figures, and attorneys accused of plotting to overthrow president Kais Saied, who has imposed years-long crackdown on opposition figures.

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In a video that his family posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday, Hammami, who served as minister of human rights in 2020, announced that “if you are seeing this video, I have been arrested.”

“I’ve fought for democracy, freedom, and rights for years. He declared that he would launch a new front of struggle from his cell and declare a hunger strike.

Chaima Issa, a fellow opposition figure, was detained last week in Tunisian protests to impose a 20-year prison sentence in the same case, making his arrest follow.

Around 40 people, including former officials and Kamel Guizani, the former head of intelligence, are the targets of the sweeping prosecution.

Opposition members claim that the charges brought against them, including those that included attempts to destabilize the nation and overthrow the government, are made up and intended to oust opposition. They also claim that the measures reflect the country’s growing authoritarianism.

Najib Chebbi, the leader of the main coalition challenging Saied, is expected to be arrested by police and serve for 12 years in prison.

In what analysts describe as one of the largest political prosecutions in Tunisia’s recent history, 20 of the accused have fled abroad and received absentia sentences.

Saied insists he does not interfere with the court system, but he claimed that when the case first started in 2023, judges who found the accused guilty would be viewed as compliciters.

The convictions have been denounced by human rights organizations. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the sentences must be immediately overturned because they are politically motivated.

Amnesty’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director, Sara Hashash, criticized the Tunis Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the unjust convictions in the so-called “convention case” for being “a blatant indictment of the Tunisian justice system. “The Appeals Court has deliberately ignored the litany of fair trial violations that have plagued this sham case from day one,” she said.

In what opponents call a “coup,” Saied suspended parliament in July 2021, before a decree-making decision. In addition to the media, activists, and lawyers who criticize Saied, many of those powers were incorporated into a new constitution that was approved in a widely boycotted 2022 referendum. These are all held accountable under a “fake news” law that was passed the same year.

Saeed’s crackdown on the opposition, which has resulted in the imprisonment of prominent politicians from all political parties, has shown no sign of slowing down.