Tunisia's Court of Cassation has rejected the final appeals of dozens of opposition figures, upholding prison sentences of up to 45 years for those convicted of conspiring to overthrow President Kais Saied. The ruling, delivered on Thursday, closes three years of legal proceedings against 40 defendants — including opposition party leaders, lawyers, businessmen and human rights defenders — and cannot be challenged further.

Among those sentenced are Najib Chebbi, leader of the National Salvation Front, who received 12 years, and four prominent opposition figures — Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawhar Ben Mbarek and Ridha Belhaj — each sentenced to 20 years. Politician Noureddine Bhiri was handed a 10-year term. Half of the 40 defendants had fled the country and were sentenced in absentia. Supporters gathered outside the courthouse during the hearing, with activist Ezzedine Hazgui declaring that what was on trial was "Tunisia's future" rather than any individual.

Defence lawyers condemned both the verdict and the process. Haifa Chebbi, a lawyer and daughter of Najib Chebbi, said the short notice given for the final hearing — lawyers were informed on Monday of a Thursday session — left insufficient time to prepare a defence. "The ruling confirms that the judiciary is not independent," she said. "Opponents entered prison by political decision and will leave when Saied falls." Dalila Msaddek, whose brother Jawhar Ben Mbarek is among those convicted, wrote that the legal battle was now over and that what begins next is "a purely political battle."

The case sits at the centre of a broader debate about democratic governance in Tunisia, a North African country that was widely seen as the Arab Spring's sole democratic success story before Saied's political transformation. In 2021, Saied suspended parliament and seized extraordinary powers, subsequently ruling largely by decree, dissolving the independent Supreme Judicial Council and dismissing dozens of judges. Rights groups say these moves gave the executive effective control over the judiciary. When most defendants were arrested in 2023, Saied called them "traitors and terrorists" and warned that judges who acquitted them would be treated as accomplices. The government has maintained that the defendants sought to destabilise the country, and Saied has insisted the judiciary remains independent.

The verdict carries significant weight as a marker of Tunisia's political direction. For the opposition and international human rights observers, the convictions represent the culmination of a systematic effort to silence dissent through the courts. For Saied's government, they represent a legitimate legal response to an alleged conspiracy against the state. With no further legal avenues available, attention now shifts to political and diplomatic pressure as the only remaining tools for those seeking the defendants' release.