Tunisian opposition leader gets 8 months in prison, banned from participating in elections – JURIST

Tunisia’s court of first instance on Friday sentenced the opposition leader Lotfi Mraihi has been sentenced to eight months in prison and a lifetime ban from participating in elections for illegally influencing votes through gifts and money, local media reported.

Mraihi is the founder and president of the Union Populaire Républicaine (Republican Union Party). He is one of the vocal critics of the current president Kais Saied. Mraihi has also been sentenced to pay a fine of 2,000 Tunisian dinars (about $650). The court has sentenced other party officials on the same charges, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation against Mraihi and his party correspondent on July 1 this year. On July 5, the investigating judge of the Tunisian court issued an arrest warrant against Mraihi and the secretary general of his party for money laundering, along with the unauthorized opening of bank accounts and the illegal transfer of money abroad.

In early July this year, Mraihi announced his intention to run for the upcoming presidential election and was also a candidate for the 2019 elections. Kais Saied announced his candidacy for the October 6 elections on the same day Mraihi was arrested.

Saied is accused of interfering with the country’s judiciary to limit his opposition to upcoming elections, in which he is running for a second term.

Amnesty International reported on the dire state of judicial independence in the country when Saied decided to dissolve Tunisia’s High Council of Justice in 2022.