Ayachi Zamel, presidential candidate in Tunisia, given 20 months in prison

Madrid. The Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance of Jenduba (Tunisia) sentenced on Wednesday to 20 months in prison the opposition presidential candidate Ayachi Zamel, one of the two rivals of the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, just a few weeks before the presidential elections that will take place on October 6.

Court spokesman Allah Eddine al Awadi confirmed that Zemal and two others were convicted of fraudulently collecting support for their campaign without obtaining permission from a citizen to use their data, Tunisian radio station Mossaique FM reported.

The court sentenced Zamel to eight months in prison for using a certificate containing false data and to one year for participating in the processing and transfer of personal data to third parties without the permission of the person concerned.

The other two individuals received eight months in prison for deliberately issuing a certificate containing materially false data and another year for processing personal data of third parties without their permission.

Zamel was arrested on 6 September, just hours after being provisionally released. This would not be the first time that a candidate has run in elections from prison – in 2019, businessman Nabil Karui reached the second round while in prison.

Saied assumed additional powers in 2021 when he shut down the elected parliament, dominated by the Islamist party Ennahda, and went on to rule by decree before assuming authority over the judiciary, a move that took over all state powers and was widely seen by critics as a self-coup.

The opposition, which is largely based around the National Salvation Front (FSN), has been denouncing the president’s authoritarian drift for more than two years and has demanded his resignation, particularly in light of the wave of arrests of opposition members, activists and journalists, as well as the low participation rates in the constitutional referendum and the elections held since then in Tunisia.