Tunisia adds jail time for former presidential candidate

Jailed Tunisian politician Ayachi Zammel, who had challenged the president in recent elections, has received more prison time, his lawyer said Tuesday, taking the cumulative sentences against him to more than 30 years.

Zammel, one of only two candidates allowed to run against President Kais Saied earlier this month, was arrested in early September, on the same day that electoral authorities had approved his candidacy.

A court in the central city of Kairouan sentenced Zammel late Monday to five more years behind bars over falsified ballot endorsements for the October 6 election, said lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi.

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Messaoudi told AFP that Zammel was handed three 20-month sentences in three cases.

Three of Zammel's brothers were prosecuted in the same cases and received similar jail terms, Messaoudi added.

Zammel, a former lawmaker, businessman and head of a small liberal party, received around seven per cent of the presidential vote, whereas Saied won more than 90 per cent, according to the election board, ISIE.

The president was democratically elected in 2019 but two years later staged a sweeping power grab, dissolved parliament and revised the constitution.

Zammel's lawyer said he currently faces 37 cases, all over the same accusation of fake endorsements. His campaign had called his arrest "political".

On September 5, the European Union had denounced "a continued limitation of democratic space in Tunisia" following Zammel's arrest and after a court granted the appeals of three more candidates to join the race, which ISIE later disregarded.