A TUNISIAN Military Court today sentenced opposition figure Chaima Issa to a one-year suspended prison sentence for “offending” President Kais Saied, her lawyers said.

Issa, 43, was found guilty of causing offence to Saied, spreading rumours to harm public security and inciting soldiers to disobey orders, her lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek said in a Facebook post. 

Issa, a member of the National Salvation Front coalition, said after a court hearing yesterday that Saied’s opponents were being treated like “criminals”.

“We are not criminals,” she said. “We are not plotters. We are not traitors. We are politicians, opponents of the coup of July 25, 2021.”

Saied, who was democratically elected in October 2019, assumed sweeping powers in July 2021 and has since had the constitution revised to substantially weaken parliament.

Issa was arrested in February as part of a crackdown on Tunisia’s opposition. She was released in July with her trial pending.

Samir Dilou, a member of Issa’s defence team, condemned her court appearance yesterday “under the famous decree 54, which penalises false information”. 

“It’s dangerous,” he told AFPTV.

“She should have never been prosecuted for expressing her opinions, nor tried by a military court,” Salsabil Chellali of Human Rights Watch said on X, following Issa’s suspended sentence.

Since February, more than 20 Tunisian political opponents, businessmen and others, deemed “terrorists” by Saied, have been jailed over an alleged “plot against internal security”. – AFP, December 13, 2023.