Tunisia: Twelve years in prison for presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel

Ayachi Zammel, a candidate in Tunisia’s presidential election scheduled for Sunday October 6, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. The sentence adds to two other recent verdicts, but “he remains in the running for the ballot”, his lawyer said on Tuesday October 1.

These new convictions come just five days before an election in which incumbent President Kais Saied is seeking a second term. Democratically elected in 2019, he has been accused by his opponents and rights activists of authoritarian drift since a coup de force on July 25, 2021, when he granted himself full powers.

“The Tunis 2 Court of First Instance sentenced Ayachi Zammel to 12 years in prison in four cases linked to sponsorship, three years for each case, and banned him from voting,” explained lawyer Abdessater Messaoudi.

Last Wednesday, Mr. Zammel was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by the Jendouba court for “falsifying documents”, a sentence which added to a previous 20-month prison sentence handed down by the same court on September 18, again on the same charges. A total of 37 separate prosecutions have been launched against him in all the governorates (regions) of Tunisia on similar charges, according to Me Messaoudi.

The courts accuse Mr. Zammel of breaking the rules on sponsorship, which experts say is particularly difficult to gather. Either 10,000 signatures from voters, 10 members of parliament or 40 elected representatives from local authorities were required.

Mr. Zammel, an agri-food industrialist and former member of parliament, previously unknown to the general public, was arrested on September 2, the very day his candidacy was confirmed by the ISIE electoral authority. Aged 47 and leader of the liberal Azimoun party, he is one of three candidates on the ISIE’s “definitive” list, alongside incumbent president Kais Saïed, 66, and Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, a former pan-Arabist left-wing MP.