TUNIS - A Tunisian military appeal court on Friday sentenced Seifeddine Makhlouf, a lawyer and prominent opponent of President Kais Saied, to a year in jail and banned him from his job for five years for insulting a judge, his lawyer told Reuters. This is the judiciary that Saied wants.. a judiciary that he could control it and use it against opponents," Makhlouf's lawyer, Anouar Awled Ali, said. Earlier this year, Saied replaced the Supreme Judicial Council with a temporary council. The Judicial Council had acted as the main guarantor of judicial independence since Tunisia's 2011 revolution which ushered in democracy. Saied has promised to uphold the rights and freedoms won in Tunisia's 2011 revolution, which triggered "Arab Spring" uprisings across the region.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 18, 2022 19:49 UTC