Tunisian opposition figure Chaïma Issa was given a one-year suspended prison sentence Wednesday by a military court, which found her guilty of “offending” President Kaïs Saïed in the media, according to her lawyers, Le Monde has just reported.
“Military justice sentences political activist Chaïma Issa to a one-year suspended prison sentence,” wrote one of her lawyers, Islem Hamza, on Facebook.
Lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek Msaddek reported on Facebook that Issa had been sentenced to six months in prison for “inciting” the military to disobey orders, four months for “offending” the Head of State and two months for “spreading rumors” with the aim of harming public safety.
Issa, one of the leading opposition figures, asserted after her hearing on Tuesday before a military court that opponents of President Saïed were being treated like “criminals.”
“We are not criminals. We are not plotters. We are not traitors. We are politicians, opponents of the coup d’état of July 25, 2021,” she said.
Saïed, who was democratically elected in October, 2019, assumed full power in July, 2021 and has since forced constitutional revisions at the expense of parliamentary power.
The 43-year-old Issa, a member of the National Salvation Front (FSN), had been imprisoned in February during a series of arrests broadly targeting “the opposition.” She was released on July 13 pending trial.
“She should never have been prosecuted for expressing her opinions, nor tried by a military court,” expressed Salsabil Chellali, a representative of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Tunisia, on “X” (formerly Twitter) after the verdict was delivered.
Since February, over 20 opponents of the regime–comprised primarily of businessmen and various other personalities who were described as “terrorists” by Saïed–have been imprisoned on charges of “plotting against internal security.”