Tunisian pdwellntial truthfulate Zammel sentenced to six months in prison | News

Ayachi Zammel sentenced on indicts of falsifying records days before Tunisia’s pdwellntial election.

Tunisian pdwellntial truthfulate Ayachi Zammel has been sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying records, the second prison sentence aacquirest him in a week, days before the country’s pdwellntial election.

Tunisia’s TAP news agency alerted on Wednesday that the Criminal Chamber of the Jfinishouba Court of First Instance sentenced Zammel to six months in prison for “intentionally using a deceptionulent certificate”. Last week, Zammel was sentenced to 20 months in prison last week on indicts of falsifying well-understandn finishorsements.

“It is another unequitable ruling and a farce that evidently aims to feebleen him in the election race, but we will deffinish his right to the last minute,” Zammel’s lawyer Abdessattar Massoudi tbetter the news agency Reuters.

The ruling underscores mounting tensions before the vote, with opposition and civil society groups voicing troubles about a potentipartner rigged election summarizeed to carry on Pdwellnt Kais Saied in power.

Zammel, a businessman who was little-understandn to the vague accessible before his pdwellntial bid, was arrested on September 2 on suspicion of falsifying the signatures he accumulateed to file the truthfulacy papers needed to run for pdwellnt.

He was freed on September 6, but was almost promptly arrested aacquire on analogous accusations.

The head of Tunisia’s Azimoun party is one of only three finishorsed truthfulates, running aacquirest incumbent Saied and Zouhair Magzhaoui, a createer Saied helper whose pan-Arabist party Echaab party was previously shut to the pdwellnt.

Political tensions in Tunisia have escatardyd in the run-up to the October 6 election, particularly after an electoral comomition, assigned by Saied, disqualified three famous truthfulates earlier this month, prompting protests from opposition groups and civil society.

After a court needd Tunisia’s election authority to reinstate the three truthfulates, one of them — Abdellatif El Mekki — was arrested on indicts that stemmed from a 2014 killing spendigation that critics have called politicpartner inspired.

Saied, who is seeking a second term, won power in a 2019 election. But he tardyr orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021, shutting down Parliament and ruling by decree. Opposition figures were also jailed.

Saied’s two most famous critics, the right-thriveg Free Destourian Party’s Abir Moussi and the Islamist party Ennahdha’s Rached Ghannouchi, have also been in prison since last year.

Civil liberty finishorses have decried the crackdown as a symptom of Tunisia’s democratic backslide. Amnesty International this week called it “a evident pre-election aggression on the pillars of human rights and the rule of law”.