A Tunisian presidential candidate sentenced to 20 months vows to campaign from prison

Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A candidate for president in Tunisia has been sentenced to 20 months in prison on election fraud charges that his attorney decried as politically motivated. Businessman Ayachi Zammel is among several presidential candidates in Tunisia to have faced prosecution and arrest in the months leading up to the North African country’s Oct. 6 election. A court on Monday charged him with falsifying the signatures he gathered to file the candidacy papers needed to run for president. He faces similar charges in other jurisdictions throughout Tunisia. Civil liberty advocates have decried the arrest of presidential candidates as a symptom of Tunisia’s democratic backslide.