A Tunisian court sentenced former President Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia on February 23 on charges of assaulting the state security and inciting Tunisians against each other, a judicial official said.
This is the second prison sentence against Marzouki, who resides in Paris, after a judge sentenced him in 2021 to four years in absentia. Marzouki, who was president from 2011 to 2014, is a fierce critic of President Kais Saied.
Saied closed Parliament, sacked the government, and began ruling by decree in 2021, a step that Marzouki and main opposition leaders described as a coup. The Tunisian president, who enshrined his new constitutional powers in a referendum with a low turnout in 2022, has denied his actions were a coup and said they were needed to save Tunisia from years of chaos.
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