A high court in Tunisia has on Friday, sentenced former President Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia on charges of attacking state security and inciting the masses.
The official spokesman for the Court of First Instance, Mohamed Zaitouneh said in a statement to Radio Mosaique.
“Following statements made by the accused on social media, the Public Prosecution authorised the Court of First Instance to open an investigative case against him on charges related to planning an attack intended to change the state’s structure, inciting residents to attack each other with weapons, and calling for the commission of acts of murder and robbery.”
Marzouki has yet to respond to the ruling against him. A local court had on December 22, 2021issued a preliminary ruling to jail Marzouki in absentia for four years on charges of “attacking the state security.” The former president had denied the charges.
Marzouki, 78, served as Tunisia’s president from 2011 to 2014. He said on his Facebook page, that it was “issued by a miserable judge, on the orders of an illegitimate president,” referring to President Kais Saied.
A month earlier, the judiciary issued an international arrest warrant for Marzouki, following a statement in which he said that he sought to thwart a Francophone summit scheduled to hold in the country.
In 2023, numerous political actors were arrested and accused of “plotting against state security,” with the opposition calling them “groundless arrests.”