Tunisia Sentences Extremist to 10 Years in Jail for Threat to President 

Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Tunis, Tunisia December 17, 2022. (Tunisian Presidency/Handout via Reuters)
Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Tunis, Tunisia December 17, 2022. (Tunisian Presidency/Handout via Reuters)
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Tunisia Sentences Extremist to 10 Years in Jail for Threat to President 

Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Tunis, Tunisia December 17, 2022. (Tunisian Presidency/Handout via Reuters)
Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Tunis, Tunisia December 17, 2022. (Tunisian Presidency/Handout via Reuters)

A Tunisian court sentenced a 40-year-old citizen to ten years in prison for threatening President Kais Saied in posts published in coordination with terrorist leaders.  

The man was charged with incitement to murder and insulting others through the public media and committing a “despicable act” against the head of state.  

The accused is known for following takfiri ideology and communicating with terrorist organizations and leaders inside and outside the country, revealed human rights and security sources. 

He previously published posts that included threats to “liquidate” the president and was imprisoned on Aug. 23, 2021. 

The Ministry of Interior announced on June 24 that it was investigating internal and external plots against Saied and the presidency.  

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission began preparing for the second round of the parliamentary elections.  

The Commission’s President, Farouk Bouasker, met with a delegation of the radio and television institutions and the Social Accountability Association.  

The talks focused on the need to increase youth participation given their low turnout of 11.2 percent in the first round of polls, the lowest since the 2011 vote. 

The meeting agreed on the plan, which will be adopted by the Commission to introduce the candidates and their electoral programs and urge voters to participate in the elections.  

Furthermore, Bouasker held a meeting with the heads and members of the electoral sub-bodies at home and abroad and regional coordinators for a preliminary evaluation of the first round of the parliamentary elections that were held on Dec. 17.  

A total of 262 candidates will run in the second round of legislative elections in February to compete for 131 parliamentary seats. Around seven million people are eligible to vote.  



French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
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French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)

France's foreign minister said on Sunday that ties with Algeria were back to normal after he held 2 1/2 hours of talks with Algeria's president following months of bickering that have hurt Paris' economic and security interests in its former colony.

Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognizing a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.

A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10% of France's 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.

"We are reactivating as of today all the mechanisms of cooperation in all sectors. We are going back to normal and to repeat the words of President (Abdelmadjid) Tebboune: 'the curtain is lifted'," Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement at the presidential palace in Algiers after 2 1/2 hours of talks.

His visit comes after a call between President Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Tebboune on March 31, during which the two agreed to a broad roadmap to calm tensions.

French officials say Algiers had put obstacles to administrative authorizations and new financing for French firms operating in the country.

Nowhere was that felt more than in wheat imports. Traders say the diplomatic rift led Algerian grains agency OAIC to tacitly exclude French wheat and firms in its import tenders since October. OAIC has said it treats all suppliers fairly, applying technical requirements.

Barrot said he had specifically brought up the difficulties regarding economic exchanges, notably in the agrobusiness, automobile and maritime transport sectors.

"President Tebboune reassured me of his will to give them new impetus," Barrot said.

Beyond business, the relationship has also soured to the point where security cooperation stopped. The detention by Algiers in November of 80-year-old Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal also worsened the relationship.

He has since been sentenced to five years in prison. Barrot said he hoped a gesture of "humanity" could be made by Algiers given his age and health.

With Macron's government under pressure to toughen immigration policies, the spat has fed into domestic politics in both countries.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has called for a 1968 pact between the two countries that makes it easier for Algerians to settle in France to be reviewed, after Algiers refused to take back some of its citizens who were ordered to leave France under the "OQTF" (obligation to leave French territory) deportation regime.

Barrot said Retailleau would soon go to Algiers and that the two sides would resume cooperation on judicial issues.

The relationship between the two countries is scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 war in which the North African country, which had a large settler population and was treated as an integral part of France under colonial rule, won independence.