Tunisia’s moderate Islamist leader sentenced in absentia to year in prison

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA
Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A court has sentenced moderate Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi to a year in prison for allegedly referring to police officers as tyrants in what his party said early Tuesday amounted to a sham trial. The 81-year-old founder of the Ennahdha party has refused to be removed from jail for questioning, or for Monday’s trial, considering that such cases amount to a “political settling of scores,” lawyer Samir Dilou, a former party leader, said in an interview with The Associated Press. Ghannouchi, former speaker of parliament, is the most prominent critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied.