Tunisia sentences ex-presidential candidate to 5 years in jail

 Yassine Channoufi

13 May 2020; MEMO: A Tunisian court has sentenced former presidential candidate and businessman Yassine Channoufi to five years imprisonment on charges of corruption and money laundering, Anadolu Agency reported.

The head of the Media and Communication Unit at the Court of First Instance in Tunis, Mohsen Dali, told the news agency that the competent criminal court also fined Channoufi nine million Tunisian dinars ($3 million) and set his probation at five years after his release.

The ruling is preliminary and can be appealed.

In 2017, the Tunisian National Guard arrested Channoufi, a former candidate in the 2014 presidential elections, charging him on suspicion of corruption, embezzlement and attacks on state security.