Former Tunisian presidential candidate, Ayachi Zammel, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Monday, raising his collective jail time to 35 years following previous trials, AFP reports.
Zammel, one of President Kais Saied’s opponents, was arrested in September on the day electoral authorities approved his candidacy.
His lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi said a court in Marouba, near Tunis, the nation’s capital, “increased by two years and eight months” his sentence after he was convicted of falsifying endorsements to stand in the election.
Messaoudi said Zammel, 47, has received cumulative sentences of 35 years in jail, noting that he was prosecuted in 37 different cases.
Messaoudi stated that each endorsement claimed to be falsified serves as a basis for initiating a new case.
As reported by the Tunisian election authority, ISIE, Zammel, a former legislator, entrepreneur, and leader of a small liberal party, garnered approximately seven percent of the presidential votes, while Saied achieved over 90 percent.
Saied was elected president through a democratic process in 2019, but two years later, he seized power, dissolved parliament, and amended the constitution.
