A court in Tunisia sentenced four people to death and two to life in prison on Wednesday over the assassination of a secular politician, an attack claimed by militants loyal to the Islamic State (ISIS).
The murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid in 2013 was followed by a spate of extremist attacks in Tunisia.
Belaid, 48, was a strong critic of Ennahdha, the Islamist-inspired party that came to dominate Tunisian politics, and his killing damaged the fledgling democracy established after the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the first of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
He was killed in his car outside his home on February 6, 2013.
Tunisia is currently ruled by President Kais Saied who took power in 2021 and outlawed Ennahdha, whose leader Rached Ghannouchi is in jail on unrelated charges.
The court’s judgment came after 11 years of investigations and was announced on national television in the early hours of Wednesday following 15 hours of deliberation.
Tunisia issues death sentences, especially in terrorism cases, but there has been a de facto moratorium on executions since 1991, meaning they are effectively commuted to life terms.
Nineteen others received sentences ranging from two to 120 years behind bars on charges including “belonging to a terrorist group” and “premeditated murder.”
Five defendants were sentenced to time already served.
The years after the 2011 revolution witnessed a surge in Islamist radicalism in Tunisia with thousands from the country leaving to fight as jihadists in Libya, Syria, and Iraq.
Dozens of tourists and police were killed in jihadist attacks in Sousse and the capital Tunis in 2015, although authorities say they have since made significant progress against extremists.
Jihadists loyal to ISIS claimed the assassination of another left-wing opposition figure, Mohamed Brahmi, six months after Belaid’s murder.
The killing sparked mass protests and a political crisis in which Ennahdha ceded power.
A year later, authorities announced the suspected mastermind of Belaid’s assassination, Kamel Gadhgadhi, had been killed in a counterterrorism operation.
Saeid in June 2022 dismissed dozens of judges, some of whom he accused of obstructing investigations into the 2013 killings.
The justice ministry established a special commission last year to conduct an “in-depth” study of the police and judicial investigations.
Belaid’s family and their lawyers have accused the Ennahdha party and some judges of obstructing investigations into the assassination.
The victim’s brother, Abdelmadjid Belaid, told AFP the ruling was “a first step in the right direction” but said he would continue to battle “the manipulation of the case.”
“These are only some of the perpetrators,” he said, adding, “Soon, in another case, there will be others who have a direct relation with Rached Ghannouchi.”
The rulings did not establish any connections with Ennahdha and the movement issued a statement on Wednesday that welcomed the conclusion of the trial as a vindication of its denials of any wrongdoing.
The Islamist-inspired party said they had blacklisted the Salafist movement Ansar al-Charia, which it initially tolerated, as a terrorist organization.
Hours after the verdict, Zouhaier Ben Abdalla, the public prosecutor at the Tunis court where the ruling was issued, was dismissed without explanation, local reports said.
