{"id":27067,"date":"2026-02-27T10:05:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers-qa\/channelafrica\/news\/former-tunisian-prime-minister-jailed-for-24-years-in-syria-jihadist-case\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:35:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:35:01","slug":"former-tunisian-prime-minister-jailed-for-24-years-in-syria-jihadist-case","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/former-tunisian-prime-minister-jailed-for-24-years-in-syria-jihadist-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tunisian Prime Minister jailed for 24 years in Syria jihadist case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Former Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh was sentenced on Friday to 24 years in prison on charges of facilitating Tunisian jihadists\u2019 travel to Syria over the past decade, state media said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">His party, the Islamist opposition Ennahda, says the case is politically motivated and part of a crackdown on dissent following President Kais Saied&#8217;s seizure of broad powers in 2021, when he dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Larayedh served as Prime Minister from 2013 to 2014 during a turbulent period following Tunisia\u2019s 2011 revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Larayedh, who has been detained since 2022, told the court during Thursday\u2019s hearing, &#8220;I am innocent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">I am being subjected to injustice, abuse and ingratitude.&#8221; He can appeal against both the conviction and the sentence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Following the 2011 revolution, hundreds of Tunisians travelled to Syria, Iraq, and Libya to join or fight alongside Islamic State groups.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Ennahda faced strong criticism from its secular rivals for allegedly facilitating their travel during its time in power, an accusation it has always strongly denied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The case involving Larayedh included seven other defendants, among them former officials from the Interior Ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27068,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-27067","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Larayedh sentenced on Friday to 24 years in prison","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27338,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27067\/revisions\/27338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}