IHRC condemns the jail sentences handed down to Tunisian opposition leaders yesterday and calls for an immediate end to their persecution by the revanchist deep state.

The sentences against Rachid El Ghannouchi and Said Ferjani, among others, are further evidence of the authoritarian drift of the Tunisian regime and a rolling back of the freedoms won in the 2011 Jasmine Revolution.

The use of security legislation to silence political dissent and banish opposition figures signals a dangerous slide into the political repression that characterised the oppressive Ben Ali era.

Using show trials to convict political figures of undermining state security is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Ben Ali dictatorship and risks returning the country to instability and violence.

We call on the Tunisian government to immediately quash the verdicts and release the pair along with all other political prisoners currently being held.

Governments should not be using the judiciary as a tool of oppression to exclude people from the political process and attack opposition figures.

[ENDS]

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