The Criminal Chamber of the First Instance Court in Tunisia on Friday issued an in-absentia verdict sentencing former President Moncef Marzouki to eight years of imprisonment with immediate effect, according to the court’s spokesperson Mohamed Zitouna’s statement to the Tunis Africa News Agency.
Zitouna elaborated that Marzouki was charged with “deliberate attacks intended to change the state’s structure, inciting the population to take up arms against each other, and provoking disorder, murder, and looting within Tunisian territory,” based on Article 72 of the Penal Code.
These charges were leveled against Marzouki following the circulation of a speech he gave at a conference abroad on social networks, where he allegedly incited state institutions to act and mobilize to overthrow the state’s regime.
This marks the second prison sentence for Marzouki, who currently resides in Paris, following a four-year in-absentia sentence in 2021.
It’s worth noting that Marzouki, who served as the President of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014, is among the staunch critics of President Kais Saied, who dissolved the parliament, dismissed the government, and began ruling by decree in 2021.
