Tunisia’s opposition said the charges were fabricated and police imposed a five-year prison sentence.

The police are here Tunisia Prominent opposition figure Ayachi Hammami was arrested at his home and sentenced to five years in prison after an appeals court upheld the conviction of dozens of the government’s political opponents for conspiring to endanger national security.

A court last week confirmed prison terms ranging from four to 45 years for opposition leaders, businesspeople and lawyers accused of plotting to overthrow President Kais Saied, who has suppressed opposition figures for years.

“If you see this video, I was arrested,” Hammami, who served as human rights minister in 2020, said in a video posted by his family on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

“I have spent years fighting for democracy, freedom, rights. I will turn my cell into a new front of struggle,” he said, adding that he planned to go on a hunger strike.

His arrest follows the arrests of opposition colleagues Chaima IsaHe was detained at a protest in Tunisia last week to serve a 20-year prison sentence in the same case.

The sweeping indictment targets about 40 people, including former officials and former intelligence chief Kamel Guizani.

Opposition members say the charges against them – including trying to destabilize the country and overthrow the government – are fabricated and aimed at silencing dissent through the judiciary, adding that the measures are a sign of deepening authoritarianism in the country.

Police are widely expected to arrest Najib Chebbi, the leader of the National Salvation Front, the main coalition challenging Saied, and sentence him to 12 years in prison.

Twenty of those charged have fled abroad and were sentenced in absentia in what analysts say is one of the largest political prosecutions in Tunisia’s recent history.

Saied insisted he would not interfere with the administration of justice, but when the case was launched in 2023, he said the judge who acquitted the defendant would be considered an accomplice.

Human rights groups condemned the convictions. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for the sentences to be immediately overturned, saying they were politically motivated.

Responding to the Tunisian Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the verdict on 28 November, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sara Hashash, said: “The Tunisian Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold an unfair conviction in the so-called ‘conspiracy case’ is a shocking indictment of the Tunisian justice system… The Court of Appeal deliberately ignored the litany of fair trial violations that plagued this incident. “It was a sham from day one. “

Saied suspended parliament in July 2021 in what opponents called a “coup” and later ruled by decree. Many of these powers are included in the new constitution approved in a 2022 referendum, while media figures, activists and lawyers who have criticized Saied have been detained under a “fake news” law passed the same year.

Saied has shown no sign of easing his crackdown on opposition, with prominent politicians from across the political spectrum imprisoned.

they include Jakhar Ben Mbarekco-founder of the country’s main opposition coalition; Issam Chebbi, leader of the centrist Al Joumhouri party; Rashid GhannouchiEnnahda Party leader and former Speaker of Parliament; former Prime Minister Ali Larayed; and Abir Mousi, leader of the Free Constitution Party.