A Tunisian appeals court on Wednesday upheld a 22-year prison sentence against Rached Ghannouchi, the 84-year-old leader of the Islamist-inspired Ennahda Movement and former parliament speaker, in the high-profile Instalingo case.
The ruling confirmed convictions against 40 other defendants — including politicians, journalists, bloggers and businessmen — while reducing the sentence of one female defendant, Shatha Belhaj Mubarak, from five to two years and ordering her immediate release, with the remaining term suspended under probation, judicial sources told state media.
Ghannouchi, who has been detained since a police raid on his home on 17 April 2023, was absent from the proceedings, consistent with his refusal to appear before what he and his supporters describe as a politicised judiciary.
Lower court verdict
The case stems from a 5 February 2025 verdict by a lower court that imposed prison terms ranging from five to 54 years on 41 individuals. Prosecutors accused the group of conspiring against state security, attempting to alter the nature of the state, inciting armed confrontation among Tunisians, provoking violence and looting, and committing hostile acts against the president.
Under Tunisian law, a “hostile act against the president” encompasses serious threats, assaults or actions perceived as undermining the head of state’s authority.
Origins of the Instalingo case
The charges revolve around Instalingo, a digital media and communications firm based in Kalaa Kebira, Sousse governorate. Authorities raided its headquarters on 10 September 2021, alleging links to state security offences, money laundering and online defamation. Ennahda has insisted the company provided legitimate services, including election-related content in 2019, and denied any wrongdoing.
Tunisian authorities maintain the prosecutions are purely criminal and free of political interference. However, opposition figures and rights advocates portray the Instalingo trial — along with Ghannouchi’s multiple other convictions — as part of a systematic campaign to silence critics since President Kais Saied’s sweeping measures in July 2021.
Saied suspended parliament, dismissed the government, ruled by decree, adopted a new constitution via referendum and called early elections. His supporters hail the moves as necessary to rescue the state from chaos and correct deviations from the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Opponents, including Ennahda, denounce them as a coup that has eroded democratic gains, concentrated power in the presidency and triggered a wave of arrests targeting politicians, judges, journalists and activists.
Next legal steps
The appeals decision is not final. Defendants retain the right to challenge it before the Court of Cassation, though such appeals do not suspend sentence enforcement.
Ghannouchi, a key architect of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition who once led power-sharing governments, now faces a cumulative prison term across several cases that could see him spend his remaining years behind bars.
The verdict underscores the deepening polarisation in Tunisia, where economic hardship and political repression continue to fuel debate over the future of the Arab Spring’s sole enduring success story.
